sears-roeb: A nice model family with the same cabinet

Sears, Roebuck & Co. gave Noblitt-Sparks Industries with its own brand "Arvin" the manufacturer code 132. You can see the manufacturer code list by member John Kusching here on post 3.

Probably 1950 Sears selected a nice looking cabinet for quite a series of different models. We know at least a 5 tube version, a 6 tube version and even an eight tube version. Here you find a similar cabinet which would fit for the cabinet for Sears: Arvin model 460T with chassis RE-284, which was available in Ivory, Willow Green and Sandelwood. Here we will not link all those Arvin models, but even around 1953/54 it seems that Noblitt Sparks has it still as 760T with chassis RE342 as 6 tube radio for broadcast only. With the chassis RE-277 and RE-277-1, Noblitt-Sparks built also AM-FM models with 8 tubes, for instance model Arvin 480TFM and 481TFM.

For Sears we find at least the following models with the same cabinet:
6 tube broadcast receivers:
Silvertone 15 with chassis 132.844, Silvertone 16 with chassis 132.844-1, Silvertone 15 with chassis 132.884, 132.884-1 and 132.884-2.
Probably a year later we can find a 5 tube model with broadcast and SW in the same cabinet as Silvertone 2022, chassis 132.027.
But there are also 8 tube AM-FM-models with transformer for AC only in that same cabinet, the Silvertone 18 with chassis 132.877 and the Silvertone 20 with chassis 132.877.

I wrote this article because I found at eBay a model "Silvertone Catalog # 18 AM/FM Bakelite Tube Radio", for which I created a new model page. I believe now that it belongs to Silvertone 18, chassis 132.877, but with this analysis I could find quite a family with this cabinet. I will link this text to the named models. For each a user can get this common information.

What is still in question is:
Is this really a Bakelite mould or is it modern plastic?
I know that in the USA bakelite is sometimes called plastic - even in catalogs - and for getting a better price at eBay you find often the opposite: A set is called "Bakelite" but it is of plastic.
Without knowing how to test one directly on the material, one can often not distinguish. Seldom a photo can tell ...

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