The PHILCO Phorum
Please identify this radio - Printable Version

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Please identify this radio - Kestas - 11-18-2014

Here is a radio I saw today at a resale shop.  It looks like a Philco.  I don't recognize it from any of the usual databases.  Is it a hybrid (i.e., custom cabinet)?  The guy wants $150 for it.

RE: Please identify this radio - morzh - 11-18-2014

I would get it for 150. Likely a custom build. A Philco, yes. From, Methinks, 1936, like a 620 or 660 or such.

RE: Please identify this radio - KCMike - 11-18-2014

I don't know if that is a Philco cabinet. Like morzh said, looks like a custom job. I do like the look of it and would most likely buy it.

RE: Please identify this radio - morzh - 11-18-2014

Where is it?

RE: Please identify this radio - Ron Ramirez - 11-18-2014

Philco chassis - yes. Philco cabinet - definitely not. Custom cabinet - most likely.

Nevertheless, if you like it, then why not? Icon_smile Just because it isn't a 100% factory-built Philco doesn't mean you can't enjoy it.

RE: Please identify this radio - Kestas - 11-18-2014

I'd probably buy it, but I'm out of state right now. The logistics to bring home such a radio would be quite an undertaking. The radio is in Delray Beach, FL. I wanted to run this radio past you guys to make sure it wasn't something rare and valuable.

RE: Please identify this radio - morzh - 11-18-2014

To me the price is fair.

RE: Please identify this radio - Arran - 11-19-2014

 That cabinet looks familiar for some reason, I think it's a factory cabinet, but it's not a Philco cabinet, it is not a 620 though, the escutcheon displays a shadowmeter. To me it looks a lot like a Sparton or an early 1930s Bosch. It would be interesting to have a look at the set from the rear, if there were an shims or extra holes drilled to hold the Philco chassis in there then it probably a frankenradio. There was a company in New York that used to put mismatched chassis and cabinets together, particularly during the war years when you could not buy a new radio, some are rather well done like the McMurdo-Silver chassis in an American Bosch cabinet that Bruce has.
Regards
Arran

RE: Please identify this radio - Arran - 11-19-2014

 I knew that cabinet looked familiar, it is most definitely NOT a custom it's a frankenradio, a Philco 630, 640, 650 chassis, in a brand Z cabinet, a 15-U-273, no doubt that one of their infamously puny power transformers took a dump.

http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=58872

Also from the rear

http://antiqueradios.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=58874

Regards
Arran

RE: Please identify this radio - Ron Ramirez - 11-19-2014

Ah, good catch, Arran. Too bad...I hate to say it, but that radio would have been more valuable if it still had the Brand Z 15-U-273 chassis inside. You know the masses demand their Big Black Dial... Icon_wink

RE: Please identify this radio - Arran - 11-19-2014

Ron;
  That may be more true in this case with the number of dollars involved but it pretty much applies to any radio with a mismatched chassis and cabinet, regardless of make or model. I think that it may have been done by one of the Radio Row stores in New York, Bruce has an example of one of those in the form of a McMurdo chassis inside an American Bosch cabinet, I once saw a radio with Pierce Aero (DeWald) chassis in an earlier highboy cabinet with doors. I would assume that the 15 in 15-U-273 would stand for 15 tubes would it not?
The brand Z model numbers never made much sense to me, this was what I always found nauseating on the alternative forum, someone would as a question about their set and just ramble off the model number. Most companies like Philco had some sort of date code in the model number, with brand Z  I can't tell one apart from the other, one can be a 1937 model and another can be 1942 and both can start with a 8,9,10,11, or 12.
 Believe it or not I know of someone who has one of those, either that or it was a 15-U-272, I saw it about 12 years ago whilst visiting a fellow collector in Edmonton. I thought that it was rather garish myself, unless you happened to have resided in the Winter Palace in Saint Petersburg or the place at Versailles, I think that the small oval dial actually cleans it up somewhat.
Regards
Arran

RE: Please identify this radio - Mondial - 11-19-2014

Actually there is a model year encoded into the Zenith model number. Starting in 1936, the first of the 3 digits after the number of tubes gave the year. 1936 models had only two digits, the missing first digit implied zero years after 1936. So a typical 1936 model number would be 6-S-52. A 1937 model of the same radio would be 6-S-152, 1938 would be 6-S-252 and so on.

So the 15-U-273 would be a 1938 model. This numbering worked up into the 40's where a 12-S-471 would be 1940 and 6-G-601 would be '42.

RE: Please identify this radio - thirtiesradio - 12-23-2014

 A Zenith 15-U-273 cabinet. A good buy for $150. I have a couple 15 tube Zenith shutterdial sets and they perform well. There is a very large Zenith chassis in those 15 tube sets but there is a lot of open space underneath. That is one beautiful cabinet Icon_biggrin

RE: Please identify this radio - Art Hoch - 12-23-2014

I like both!