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An Interesting Philco Model - Arran - 03-05-2009

Hello all, I hate linking to fleabay but I ran across this Philco model with a very interesting cabinet. It looks like it's from the early 1940s but I haven't seen it in either MR Ramirez' book or in his gallery.

http://cgi.ebay.com/120386841567

Best Regards
Arran

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - exray - 03-05-2009

Thats an interesting one! A real tabletop console version! Doesn't look like a product from the FrankenPhilco 'console chopping' factory.

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - 49Stude63 - 03-05-2009

I think it is a Fraken-Philco because normally all consoles or tables would have a back piece to support the side, in the case of a table I would expect some type of bottom but at least a rear lower brace. It looks like they chopped 41-624 but I am impressed with the quality of the work.

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Arran - 03-05-2009

That's what I thought at first, or that it may have been a battery set, or a Canadian only model, but it has a line cord and it does not have a serial number plate on the chassis. Console top table radios seem to have been a cabinet style more common in Canada then the US, Canadian Westinghouse built a whole series of them in that era, and Philco made some under the "Tropic " series. I think that Mr.Ramirez should cut and paste a picture of this radio for his gallery.
Best Regards
Arran

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Arran - 03-06-2009

49Stude63 Wrote:I think it is a Fraken-Philco because normally all consoles or tables would have a back piece to support the side, in the case of a table I would expect some type of bottom but at least a rear lower brace. It looks like they chopped 41-624 but I am impressed with the quality of the work.

I don't think so, if you look at the rear shot you can see that the loop antenna was made in just the right size to fit. Plus the workmanship of the cabinet is just too top knotch for some home brewer to have overlooked adding a horizontal brace or a bottom by accident, it does have blocks in the front inside corners to stiffen it anyhow. If you look at some US made GE consoles they have no horizontal brace either, and the chassis shelf is at least two feet off the floor.
Best Regards
Arran

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Doug Houston - 03-06-2009

That thing has a funny odor to it. Notice that there is no brace across the rear of the cabinet at the very bottom. Cabinets just aren't built that way. Further, the speaker is right smack at the bottom of the cabinet. That's another suspicious looking thing about it. Somehow or another, something just has to have been removed from the lower part of the cabinet, and it's hard to figure out what it is. I'm sure that the cabinet isn't all there.

Of course, I haven't seen every Philco set that's ever been made, but of what I've seen, and even have, Philco just idn't make cabinets like that.

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Arran - 03-06-2009

The model in question is a model 41-624, in the gallery there is a model 41-624P console, <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1941b.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1941b.htm</a><!-- m --> with a built in phonograph, but the mill work is different other then the pilasters on the front corners. The grill looks similar but inverted, but the base is different, so if it was made out of a cut down console some very skilled cabinet maker made a lot of their own cabinet parts. Does anyone have a photo of the backside of a 41-624P console to compare it to?
Best Regards
Arran

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Chuck Schwark - 03-06-2009

Obvious original console chop-job to make it a "table" radio.
I've seen this done before. A Philco Amputee.

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - 49Stude63 - 03-06-2009

It is a chop job, on the antenna it is missing a lower pivot bar. If you look at Philcos they woudl have an upper and lower middle pivot so that you could rotate the antenna, this one seems to be dangling from the upper pivot. I have yet to see a prewar Philco some some metal swivel that supported the antenna without a lower support, look at RCA, Philco, and Zenith (wavemagnet) they have a lower pivot support. I have yet to see a radio without the back-brace along the bottom since without that brace the radio would be flimsy and weak and would break in no time. Great work but missing a few items.

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Arran - 03-06-2009

Doug Houston Wrote:That thing has a funny odor to it. Notice that there is no brace across the rear of the cabinet at the very bottom. Cabinets just aren't built that way. Further, the speaker is right smack at the bottom of the cabinet. That's another suspicious looking thing about it. Somehow or another, something just has to have been removed from the lower part of the cabinet, and it's hard to figure out what it is. I'm sure that the cabinet isn't all there.

Of course, I haven't seen every Philco set that's ever been made, but of what I've seen, and even have, Philco just idn't make cabinets like that.

As I mentioned before there is a series of Canadian Westinghouse sets built in just that way, that look like the top end of a console, the dial on top and speaker below layout in a table model may be almost unknown stateside but isn't in Canada or in Britain, Rogers, Westinghouse, and Electrohome built sets with this sort of layout up here, but Westinghouse was the main builder of table top consoles. I also have a 40-780 Philco Tropic much along the same lines. If it was a cut down console it has to be the most professional job of this that I have ever seen, if the starting bid wasn't so high I would be tempted to bid on this set. Again, does anyone have a photo of the backside of a 41-624P console? I'm very curious as to the layout of parts, it looks like the record player was behind a drawer right bellow the controls.
Best Regards
Arran

Re: An Interesting Philco Model - Ron Ramirez - 03-06-2009

Chuck nailed it.

It's been chopped, shortened, modified, whatever you want to call it...bottom line is...it ain't original, folks.

Look here to see what a 41-624 should look like.

http://www.philcoradio.com/gallery/1941b.htm#o