Beautiful post-war Catalin Radio , designed by James Franklin Glover in 1946 for Bendix Aviation, in Jade-Green - Black, Mint Serviced and Working

In a Nutshell
The Bendix 526(M)C, not rare, but nevertheless unique among the catalins: cabinet made from 4 separate pieces allowing two distinct colours, Jade-green - yellow swirled and jet black, posh and - of course - working

Introduction:
Of the five prewar plastics catalin, beetle, urea, plaskon and bakelite, catalin is the "gem of plastics", followed by beetle, a beautiful special type of plaskon. Radios made from catalin are fetching by far the highest prices, because this material is most subject to material shrinking, causing many of their cabinets having developed cracks, especially when (non-shrinking) chassis' have been screwed too tightly to the cabinets. Catalin is the only material, that could be made in all colours, mostly with two or three of them mixed into swirling patterns and often translucent.
The American Catalin Corporation, following a German recipee, began producing catalin casts in 1927, the very same year that Dr. Leo Baekeland's bakelite patent expired, in New York. Production was suspended in 1942. Catalin was introduced for radio cabinets in the 1930's in order to make radios cheaper than wooden radios, and more attractive than bakelite radios. Typical prices for a bakelite, catalin, or wood radio were 10$, 40$, and 100$, respectively. Today a blue Fada Bullet radio is in the price guides for 5000$ and fetches on eBay 3000$, a little green Motorola Circle Grille radio was sold for 18'000$ a few years ago at an auction in New York. Catalin was also used for vintage fashion accessories and fine, expensive jewelry.
During World War II Bendix Aviation Corporation in Baltimore made just about every ancillary instrument or equipment for military aircraft. During and after the war Bendix made radar equipment of all kinds. As a spin-off of these activities after the war Bendix started making domestic radios and phonographs for the retail market. In 1948 Bendix started to sell car radios directly to Ford and other auto manufacturers. This market rapidly grew during the 1950s, but shrank just as fast in the 1960s when Ford, GM and Chrysler started producing their own radios. The "new, original and ornamental" design of this radio was done by James Franklin Glover (pict.s 31,32), and is indeed very unique, since the radio's cabinet is screwed together (from the inside) from 4 distinctive parts, 3 of which are made from jade-green catalin with yellow swirls, whereas the other (bottom and front) is made from rare jet-black catalin (pict.18). Properly polished black Catalin has a mirror-like gloss unmatched by any other type of plastic; it looks like glass or glazed ceramic.

Additional information:
ref. 1.    http://www.tuberadioland.com/bendix526C_main.html
ref. 2.    http://celluloidforever.com/BakeliteandCatalin.html
ref. 3.    http://www.nostalgiaair.org

About my radio:
My radio has vibrant and dramatic swirls throughout all its surfaces. The radio is in mint and original condition, having no chips, scratches, cracks, or discolorations. I polished the cabinet slightly, removing the thin alcohol layer deposited over time (see techies below). I have polished it only slightly not to risk the butterscotch swirls to turn into their original white alabaster colour, a mistake often done to this radio. The dial glass is original and in perfect shape. The chassis (it is the MC version with miniature tubes, as opposed to the C version with octal tubes) has been thoroughly cleaned and in-depth serviced. All moving parts have been treated with contact spray. The filter capacitors have been restored the expensive way, by filling new capacitors in the original shell. Some paper wax capacitors have been replaced as well. The radio plays loud and clear on AM/BC, where it has good sensitivity and selectivity over the whole band spread, partly thanks to its efficient "Super Signal" loop antenna. Please e-mail me (Kris) for any questions, ich spreche Deutsch, je parle Français.

For the techies only:
Catalin, like bakelite is a phenol formaldehyde resin, but unlike bakelite does not use fillers and is cast at much lower temperatures and not under pressure, thus allowing a full colour spectrum. Objects from catalin can be easily recognized by their thicker wall thickness, and from their colour transformations with increasing age. Catalin with time (a few years only!) and under the influence of UV light, develops a very thin surface layer of phenyl alcohol, which is brown and can be easily removed with practically any plastic cleaner. Common wisdom is: try it, and you will be amazed by the result, but never ever try it without extensive testing on a butterscotch coloured object, since it will turn it back into its original white alabaster look, which is disliked by most collectors.
In passing I observe that taking pictures of catalin, yields results that are very dependent on the colours of the background and objects, that are reflected in their surface, as well as on lighting conditions. Take for example the "ears" in pict.20 bottom - the difference is not a before-after polishing effect, but only a question of the background colour, that influences the camera's white balance and colour temperature algorithms.

Here are the specifications:

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