1939 DeWald radio
 

I just acquired this very nice all-original 1939 Dewald, model number unknown. It's larger than the typical tabletop set, yet slender and lighter than you'd expect. The front slopes back. It has all my favorite styling cues of the late '30's - waterfall cabinet, large airplane dial, green tuning eye, and bold grill slats. The only info I can find is a catalog page from 1939 that only has catalog numbers. If anyone knows it's actual model number, please let me know.

I think Dewald was a company that was like Silvertone was to Sears and Airline was to Montgomery Wards, it was a house brand for a department store, and so because of that they didn't actually use model numbers but rather Cat. No. (Catalog Numbers) for identifing radios, so whatever the Catalog Number was that you saw in that Catalog Ad for this radio was, that more than likely WAS the model number of the unit.

With the above information in mind, more than likely this radio was made by another company for Dewald, like maybe Stewart-Warner, or Wells-Gardner, or some other company like that, and if that's the case you'll have to look for a chassis number and look up the chassis number under one of those company names and see what comes up.

Hope this helps.

Dewald was a company by itself. It also was known as United Scientific Lab.
They built some private label products, especially for Lafayette. It was fair, but nothing special. :scratch2:

OK, I wasn't sure, that's why I said what I did (to protect my butt in case I was wrong).

I've never actually come across any Dewald radios in my neck of the woods, I've found a few Delco (General Motors) radios, but not Dewald, and I've also not come across many LaFayette Branded units either, Mostly Emerson, GE and Zenith are the most common brands I come across.

Thanks guys. I believe Dewald radios were sold by L&C Mayers Co. of NY. I can't find much about the company, but they did have a big catalog like Montgomery Wards and Sears. I don't know if they had a brick and mortar store, but likely they did, and likely it was located on 5th Ave. I need to do more research about that. Dewald seemed to be their house-brand named radios. They're good, but average quality sets, unlike Montgomery Wards Airline radios which were often very high quality Well-Gardner sets.

**Update - It seems that L & C Mayer's Co., was originally Lindsay and Curr Company, known as "Sibley's" of Rochester, NY. That was their main store. Dewald seems to be their house brand radios. Likely the bulk of these sets are to be found in the northeast. I do agree that the catalog number IS the model number. The rear tag does state "Dewald" and "Pierce Airo", which I believe became one in the same. It one of the stories where small radio manufacturer's were absorbed by another radio manufacturer. it's can get very complicated.

Pierce Arrow was actually an Automobile Manufacturer from the 1920s-1940s, more than likely they may have also made appliances (like GM did with Delco, and Auburn with their Auburn Brand, and Chrysler did under the Chrysler brand name).

And yes, unfortunately a lot of smaller electronics manufacturers got absorbed by bigger companies during the period between the depression and the 1950s, E. H. Scott being one of them, but they were actually aquired by a smaller firm mainly Meck Industries of Plymouth, Indiana, which then went belly up in the late 1950s early 1960s and so the Meck and Scott and the Philharmonic names were lost to history after that.

I believe Pierce Airo radio just used that slightly revised name to convey quality for their company. I don't think it had anything to do with the Pierce Arrow car. There is also radios under the Studebaker name.

OK, I wasn't sure if that spelling you used was a typo or not.

I thought the same thing thing when I first saw that name and then someone pointed out that it's spelled differently. I forgot to mention that I also had a cathedral radio with the "Auburn" name written exactly like the automobile company wrote it. When the name is exactly the same, I'm not sure how a radio company got away with that.

I have an Auburn curtain burner midget from around 1933; it's a rebadged TCA (Clarion).

There was Zenith, RCA, Philco, etc., and also millions of cheapie 4-tube sets sold in local general stores. Just about any badging was put on them. It sometimes frustrating with these to collectors like myself who are interested in the history of the set.

ISTR reading Chicago had 1or 2 of the biggest rebadging makers of the time and that those companies Basically only made sets under other names.

Interesting. They just interchanged letters on the bezel and name plate molds. How they came up with some of them must be an interesting story.

I have one of the few Wells Gardner sets that is badged Wells Gardner.
Most of their production was private label.
Others were, Belmont, Stewart Warner, Continental which later became Admiral Corp, Warwick and numerous smaller firms.