model 444 People's Set; British 1936 des. and man. Philco Ltd

Table radio set, domed shape, receding backwards toward the top, compression moulded from black Bakelite. The loudspeaker, located toward the top of the face, is covered with woven fabric. Three moulded decorative 'ribs' run over the centre of the speaker, terminating at the tuning dial, a yellow rectangle with rounded corners. In the centre of the dial is a tuning knob. Knobs for volume and wave band are located below the tuning dial, beneath an encircling moulded decorative band.

Purchased by the V&A in 1992 from Gad Sassower [92/1745].

The first successful radio transmission was made by David Edward Hughes (1831-1900) in 1879. Some years later, in 1896, Gugliemo Marconi (1874-1937) patented a system of electromagnetic radio wave communication which, unlike the already-established telegraph system, was ‘wireless’, meaning signals could be heard by anyone with a radio receiver in range of the broadcast. Marconi established the world’s first radio factory in Chelmsford in 1898, where sets were hand-built to high specifications for mostly scientific, governmental and military customers. Another early customer was Queen Victoria who in 1898 had a set installed at Osborne House, Isle of Wight, so she could communicate with the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII, as he convalesced aboard his yacht at Cowes.

Military applications meant that radio technology advanced rapidly during the First World War, and in the 1920s regular civilian broadcasting began, changing the domestic experience forever. The previously diverse parts of the radio; the valves, controls, wires and speakers, began in the mid-1920s to be enclosed inside a single cabinet. In this early period, radios were seen essentially as furniture and some companies employed cabinet-makers and well-known furniture designers. As radios were new to the domestic interior, their design had no precedent, which allowed manufacturers to design them creatively. This struck a chord in the late-1920s and 1930s with the expanding synthetic plastics industry; oil-based plastics were also a recent innovation, the first, Bakelite (phenol-formaldehyde), having been successfully synthesised in 1907. The collaboration between industrial designers and manufacturers gave rise to many very modern radio designs, particularly in America. Tastes in Britain remained, in general, more conservative, favouring wooden cabinets or Bakelite cabinets imitating wood. During the Second World War the manufacture of civilian radios essentially ceased in the United Kingdom, with the exception of the ‘Utility’ radio (see V&A CIRC.678-1975) produced under government directive by 42 companies.

Philco Radio and Television Corporation, a subsidiary of Philco USA, was incorporated in Britain in 1936. The company acted as a wartime supplier to the aircraft industry, going on to manufacture televisions and radios until at least the 1960s.

The BBC's charter was renewed for the first time in 1936. In the previous year, Lord Ullswater had been appointed to lead a review of broadcasting, to make recommendations about the future direction and management of the Corporation. In the report, criticism was directed at British radio manufacturers for their failure to produce a set which was truly affordable to the majority of people, despite the expansion of radio production in the first part of the decade. The Philco 'People's Set' was a reply to this criticism, although retailing at price of £6 6s (over £300 in 2015) it was still quite expensive. The design is modestly reminiscent of contemporary streamlined trends, while its general shape references upright 'cathedral'-style sets which were popular in the late-1920s and early-1930s. The set is important as it represents a point when radio was becoming more accessible as a truly mass medium, for entertainment, for education and for information.

W.30-1992