1957 Bulova 290P
Coat pocket radio, thermoplastic cabinet
6 x 3 1/8 x 1 1/4 inches (152 x 80 x 32 mm)
Four transistors: RCA 2N77, RCA 2N408, RCA 2N412, Toshiba 2SA52 in black cabinet example, one standard 9v battery
Manufactured by Guild Electronics Inc., Brooklyn, New York
Distributed by Bulova Watch Corp., Woodside, New York
I think this 290P model is one of Bulova's nicest cabinet designs. Several sources show this model as having the beautiful blue Raytheon transistors, but the black example here has no Raytheons in sight, just three RCA transistors and one Toshiba. The soldering on the circuit board looks original to me -- or just really well done by someone who wanted to keep the Raytheons! And the red one? The tuning dial center simply cannot be unscrewed, no matter how hard I've tried -- I actually think it was Superglued onto the dial for some unknown reason. So I can't get to the chassis on this one.
Joe Haupt's Flickr page for the Bulova 290P includes an advertisement from The Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper, dated December 1, 1957, which indicates the 290P was sold into 1958, though it's not clear when it stopped being manufactured. The Bulova 290P was one of a number of those 4-transistor "All Transistor" radios made by US manufacturers early on, and it came after the 1955 Bulova 250, a Regency TR-1 clone in cabinet and chassis; the Bulova 260, made by Guild Electronics Inc.; and the 1956 Bulova 270, with a Raytheon T-100 chassis. Some of this info (Guild Electronics as the manufacturer for several early Bulova models) comes from a forum post on antiqueradios.com by Bulovafetish. And according to another Bulovafetish post, there also was a 290L model, housed in a leather or leatherette cabinet: "For the models 290L and 290P, the 'L' and 'P' indicates leather and plastic respectively."
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