Radio receiver and speaker cone; phenolic resin (Philite/Bakelite), rexine and metal; Philips, Netherlands, 1928

Philips model 2514 radio receiver and model 2007 loudspeaker.

This set was purchased by the vendor's father at the 'Radio Exhibition' event held at Olympia in September 1928; it was bought by the V&A for £75 from Mr. S. Shaw in 1978 (77/2172). Mr Shaw offered it to the Museum after he had heard about the V&A's 1977 exhibition of radio design, 'The Wireless Show!'. He stated that he would use the funds toward the care of his 87 year old father, who had arthritis. Mr Shaw wrote that this radio had been one of his father's 'proudest possessions'.

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.

Koninklijke Philips N.V., better known as Philips, was founded in Eindhoven in 1891 by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik. Initially a manufacturer of lightbulbs, the company diversified in the 1920s. In 1927 Philips set-up the first shortwave radio station in Europe, PCJJ, broadcasting in several languages around the world. Louis Kalff, designer of this set, started work in the advertising department of Philips in 1925. He worked as an architect as well as a graphic and industrial designer, producing, among others, the the Dr. A.F. Philips Observatory in Eindhoven (1937).

Bakelite (compression-moulded phenol-formaldehyde resin) was discovered in 1907 by Leo Baekeland, a Belgian-born industrial chemist working in America. Baekeland's original patent for the material expired in 1927, meaning manufacturers no longer had to seek licences from his Bakelite Corporation to produce the plastic. This more open situation allowed designers and manufacturers to explore more fully the possibilities of shape and form offered by Bakelite. Earlier in the 1920s, radio receivers had started to become more widespread in homes. In a short space of time they had moved from numerous separate components screwed to a board, to having all elements (usually excepting a separate loudspeaker) contained inside a single unit. As an electronic, domestic provider of information and entertainment, the radio had no design precedent. 19th century communications devices like the telephone and gramophone had been effectively turned into pieces of furniture in order to fit into existing interiors. This too happened with radios, both before and after the broad adoption of plastic materials in the early 1930s. However, as radios became cheaper and more common, they began to take on new shapes and an often distinctly modern character, helped largely by an increased use of cheaper plastics which could form a wider range of shapes than traditional materials.

This iconic set was produced by Philips in 1928. Its two parts, the receiver and loudspeaker, are contrasting yet complimentary to each other. The dish-like loudspeaker was made using the company’s own brand of Bakelite resin, called Philite. The receiver is minimalist and functionalist, made from metal covered with imitation leather, whereas the gold-speckled speaker, whilst being clearly descended from gramophone horns, is a distinctly modern ‘art’ object, made using a distinctly modern material. The speaker was known in the Netherlands as the ‘shaving plate’ or ‘pancake’. When new, one of these sets would have cost 165 Dutch guilders.

W.3&A-1978