Is this Laureate in a Oxford cabinet

[Robert Jackson]

Hi Gents,

Been a while since I wrote. I picked up a Scott Laureate and would ask if anyone could confirm the cabinet type for me. From pictures on the site, it most resembles the Oxford cabinet Y2K Bruce has posted. This one however has a split top, a front door and a bit more gingerbread carving. Would you consider this to also be an Oxford cabinet? My Laureate has the spot for a turntable but it appears one was never installed. It has a different speaker and includes the tweeters that function only during FM play. Kent, the serial number is 296. Thanks, Bob

[Kent King]

Interesting...I didn't know that anyone had found a Linden with the doors. There are promo pics of it in the sales brochures, I'd just never seen one.

Kent

[Norman S Braithwaite]

I would consider it to be an Oxford cabinet, perhaps a real early one from Orinoco furniture company just before they filed for bankruptcy.  Examples of cabinets with details deviating from published illustrations are not uncommon especially in the later years when EH Scott Radio Laboratories was working with multiple cabinet manufacturers.  I recently sold a Linden cabinet that had doors over the grill not shown on the cabinet illustration and not present on other Linden cabinets.  It is also possible that the cabinet was a special order to meet a customer requirement of having a lid that can be opened to access or show off the chrome chassis, a feature not included in the Oxford cabinet shown in the illustration and most often found.

Norman

[Kent King]

This is certainly not an Oxford cabinet. As Dave noted, it isn't in the Collector's Guide, but that doesn't exclude it from being a Scott offered cabinet. It might also have been a reused cabinet, but the images look like the set has lived in this cabinet for a very long time. The cabinet looks familiar to me...but I can't quite place it. Hopefully someone will recognize it.

BTW...the serial number includes the prefix, but I can see from the pic it is WW. WW-296 was built in May or June of 1941, based on other numbers I have in that prefix.

Kent

[David C. Poland]

Hi Bob  - Well, you do have a Scott Laureate, the last Scott design before WW2. 

The normal Scott speaker for the Laureate is 15 inch with a center mounted tweeter -- a coaxial speaker..

Yours has a speaker set like the late 1930's Phantom's optional 4 unit  system - 12 inch speaker, 2 tweeters and a crossover that you have. Could certainly have been as supplied by Scott, especially in light of materials shortages towards the end of 1941 when Scott is thought to have completed radios with what was still available.

Jim Clark's Scott guide is pretty complete, but your cabinet is not pictured. I agree is seems to have some of the detail of the Oxford, but the front panels (doors?) above the speaker grill do not match any cabinet in the Clark guide. The drop front panel in front of the radio is more like a post war credenza cabinet, but again does not match any post war Scott cabinet I am aware of. 

Perhaps the radio has been installed in a custom cabinet or a cabinet repurposed for your Scott.