[Dan Walker]

I bought this 1939-40 radio from the son of the original owner.. I recapped it and did some work on the cabinet and now it plays and looks good. It is a model14-106..Rogers had names for their radios and this one is called RITZ..[attachment=2882][attachment=2882][attachment=2881][attachment=2881]

[murf]

Handsome set.

[morzh]

I like the looks of it.

[Jamie]

I can see why they called it The Ritz... very classy looking set! Nice.

[PhilcoJohn]

Very nice console radio. I like the looks of it, the curved radio dial is like my RCA 816k console. Good luck and enjoy the radio!

[KCMike]

What a nice looking console. I also like the tuning eye tubes prominence above the dial scale.

[Arran]

The chassis is very similar to my 1938-39 Deforest Crosley Brahms, the knobs were coated with a dark brown tinted lacquer originally, undercoated with silver paint. In 1940 or so they dropped the "Crosley" portion of Deforest Crosley, probably because Mohawk radio acquired the rights to use that name in Canada, perhaps after Ted Rogers senior died and the company was sold to Small Electric Motors Ltd.
This Deforest is rather strange, it looks like a 1938-39 Canadian Majestic model. I did find an add for it on the radiomuuseeum site, all of the other Deforest models have a flat, rectangular slide rule dial, and the example they show of a "Ritz" has a pushbutton bank of ten above the dial indicating it was motor tuned.

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/deforest_ri...d1092.html

The 1938-39 Majestic models looked almost identical, here is a very similar set that again does not have the motor tuning:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/rogerstube_...m1091.html

In the 1938-39 model year they often had two two models sharing the same chassis with the same circuits, the more expensive set would have the motorized tuning, the cheaper set would not. The 8105 had no pushbuttons, the 8106 did have pushbuttons, one used the 8M1091 chassis, the other used the 8M1092 chassis with the motor tuning but everything else is the same. Here is a Deforest Crosley Liszt, it has a 8D991 chassis, no pushbuttons:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/deforest_liszt.html

Here is the set I have, a Deforest Crosley Brahms, it uses an 8D992 chassis, same chassis but with motor tuning, the Liszt is was $10 cheaper:

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/deforest_br...992_2.html

When you get right into the technical aspects it's amazing how much of the design was based on marketing rather then meaningful engineering in some sets, the main difference between the 8D(M,R)1091/1092 and the 8D(M,R)991/992 was the addition of a type 84M tube, basically a spray shielded 6H6G, and the substitution of a 6J5M for a 6R7M, the circuitry connected to the two separate tubes is exactly the same.
My guess is that Rogers was trying to use up left over 1938-39 Majestic chassis for the 1939-40 model year, either that of they couldn't be bothered with the cost of retooling and engineering for a new top end model and just facelifted a 1938-39 Majestic instead.
Regards
Arran

[Dan Walker]

Arran, Thanks for all the information. about my radio.
As you said the knobs had a dark lacquer with silver undercoated. I tried to reproduce that effect with no luck. By looking at mine I can see where they would have put the push buttons because that piece of wood could have been removed. I did not realize there were so many models that were the same. Now it seems that my radio is worth a little more than I paid for it $125.00.
thanks again Dan

[Arran]

Stain doesn't work on those knobs, since they are made out of a blond grainless hardwood like maple, you would have to use a shading lacquer like Mohawk. As for financial value it's kind of subjective, since they are Canadian made sets they are generally overlooked even in Canada, but they are very interesting.
Regards
Arran