This company has some grill cloth that is very close to some of the antique cloth we have all been looking for. No prices listed but it may be worth investigating for some of you die hard cloth seekers. Page three has a pattern that is real close to some old cloth.

http://digilander.libero.it/oldradios/engver/index.html

Is anyone thinking of ordering from this company. I'm figuring your gonna have to deal in Euro's.

Just looks like a display of some radio grille cloths on a radio hobby sight. I don't see anything that indicates it's a business or that anything is for sale.

Larry

The cheapest is about 28 Euros a sq. ft. (30cm X 30cm) plus 5 to 10 Euros for shipping. So cloth for a table radio could cost you as much as $50. Exchange rate is .76 Euro = $1. Haven't ordered any.

Where are you seeing prices on that website? Link?

Larry

I sent him an e-mail.

Ah, OK. Might be worth it for that very first one shown as it's a very close match to the Zenith "flame" grille cloth.





Larry

Yes, I saw that one too. There were 3 or 4 that I was interested in, but I was not ready to put up several hundred dollars - yet.

I had been discussing this on another thread but thought it would be best to merge my results into this thread.
I made the plunge and bought a cloth from this website.
The guy I worked with, Nico, was very helpful and wrote emails in English (although I translated all my emails into Italian).
I ordered the pattern PARIGI OP for my Crosley 1117 Super 11 console. As you can see from the photos below, the pattern is close but not exact. Perhaps it is exact for the Zenith version of this.
The distance between the "waves" is 3.5" on the Crosley and 2.5" on the new cloth. I took 2 photos, one flash and one no flash to try to catch the color difference. Of course, the old one is faded so looking at the border may help determine the original color. I paid 48 Euro shipping included (shipping on the package showed 11 Euro) which was $64 at that exchange rate. Paid via PayPal so no fuss on that. Surprisingly, the shipping took only 1 week to get here from Italy. I was truly amazed at that given all of the horror stories on the Italian postal service.
Bottom line is that I believe we have a new source for grill cloth, although it is not cheap. I do fully restore my radios so I feel for this radio it was worth the cost. As stated earlier, prices are quoted via email and he is easy to deal with and very responsive.

Comparison with a flash photo:



Comparison with no flash photo - natural light

Thanks for the follow-up and taking the time to post pics of the cloth from the Italian company. Looks like the cloth is a go, but only for radios of decent value. I keep searching for other sources, because if he has this cloth there has to be others out selling the same thing. Now to find a domestic seller.

I got that pattern from http://www.grillecloth.com for about $24.00 including shipping, but I just checked and they are down to just 2 patterns.

I hope you mean you got that awhile ago and not recently

I think it was about 3 months ago and I regret posting a response that only added to your distress. Unless someone with big bucks reopens a deserted fabric mill, we are all going to be looking at grandma's couch and drapes as a source of grille cloth or settle for something blah just to protect the speaker. Frustrating! I have a 1934 Ford pickup that is also very difficult to find genuine quality replacement parts for. The knock offs from foreign suppliers are usually junk, so if those suppliers decide to jump into antique radio restoration items, in my opinion we can expect similar poor quality and disappointment. End of sermon.

Yep, it looks like the people who predicted that all our favorite grille cloth patterns would be available again within a few months were dead wrong. It would be interesting to see what a 12 x 12 inch piece of Zenith Walton swirl cloth would sell for now on eBay. I'm kind of surprised that no one has put one up for grabs yet.

Bob

I suppose that if you got the small cloth 3 months ago, then John at grillecloth.com has had some smaller pieces that would work. He indicates this on his website. I did not bother to email him since I needed a large piece for a console. As far as having a domestic supplier for grill cloth, I wonder why the existing factory closed up. If it is because of low demand and a high cost structure resulting in poor margins, then anyone else thinking of opening a factory may see the same issue. I wonder what kind of volume John had at his place.
It may seem silly to put a $64 grill cloth on a $100 radio but 10 years (or even 1?) from now that may seem like a great deal.