[Arran]

Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

Of course you know why Philco resorted to photofinishes: to save $$$$. Had they built their 37-620B the way you restored yours, Russ, they would have cost more when new, and they might have lost their edge as the number one radio manufacturer at the time.

Ron;
  We may never know for sure but I have had the thought that even Philco themselves wasn't too pleased with their their faux finished cabinets. I noticed that they went all in for them in 1937, and then paired down the number of models with it for 1938, and even more so for 1939. I've noticed that by 1941 all but the cheapest of Philco cabinets had switched to real veneer, other then for things like speaker grille bars. Maybe they were having complaints about it the durability, or maybe people didn't like the way it looked. I don't know how closely the Canadian sets followed this, I can't remember the last time I saw one, I think maybe one of the late model 84s perhaps.
Regards
Arran