Post by Steve on Feb 25, 2022 17:00:17 GMT 12
This is a follow up to a very old NZVRS bulletin article from Ian King about an oddball model 15 he had.
Ok, so this should not exist. As Ian states, the Columbus brand came into being in 1937, part of a new broom sweeping clean the Radio Corporation of New Zealand factory and its messy association with several different retailers large and small.
The chassis is the 1935 one for the first version of the model 15 - later versions came in the standard baking pan chassis most of us are familiar with. But Ian mentions the design in the chassis is the later one. Curious.
The dial says Made in USA, M84 in the bottom right corner. This is also interesting - because if M84 could potentially mean model 84 then this opens more cans of worms... the Model 84 came a few years later had several different versions of this very dial - here are two:
That second one is very close in layout, design and even the pointer is the same. But that set is from 1939, some 2 or 3 years later.
I briefly considered the possibility that this dial was taken from a model 84 by a serviceperson at some point over the years and fitted to an old model 15 chassis with a broken dial - but by 1938/9 Radio Corporation of New Zealand was well tooled, well staffed and well resourced - they were etching and screen printing their own dials and not having them made anywhere else so I don't think any model 84 dials would have Made in USA on them.
I can only assume the dial and escutcheon they used on this model 15 was a sample (and I also assume this whole set was a sample), and they modelled their dials on this design for the next few years. Does anyone know the origins of the escutcheon or pointer? Crowe perhaps, like I believe their earlier 120-degree dials were?
So, an interesting set - likely a factory sample to see what the new Columbus name would look like. Probably built on an old chassis they had - and inserted into an old cabinet - a Pacific one actually - also used for the model 15
So, a mystery, wrapped in a riddle, all neatly bundled up in a conundrum.
Where is it now? Does anyone have it stashed away? Or ANY Columbus with a 1936 or earlier date code? I may have another oddball example coming to investigate but I really would love to track Ians set down, or any others like it.
Cheers, Steve
