Table radio, model 834A, Philips, Eindhoven, 1933

'Cathedral'-style mains table radio set. The faceplate is of mottled brown 'Philite', the sides are formed from flexible 'Arbolite' (a laminated plastic).

Given in memory of David Rush

Loaned to the V&A by David Rush for the 1977 exhibition 'The Wireless Show!', and bequeathed by him in 1981. [81/695].

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).

The Philips model 834A of 1933 was variously called in Dutch a 'knuckle of ham' or 'Easter' radio. In English it was referred to as a 'cathedral', a general name applied to all radio sets of vaguely gothic form. Philips were one of the earliest radio manufacturers to experiment seriously with plastics, though many others also took advantage of the expiry in 1927 of Leo Baekeland's original patent for Bakelite (a thermosetting plastic - phenol formaldehyde resin moulded under immense heat and pressure). This coincided with improvements in radio technology, while also serving to make the completed sets cheaper. Philips' version of Bakelite, Philite, was used to make the face of this set, while another material, Arbolite, a sort of plastic/paper laminate, forms the sides. Both materials are intended to imitate wood (a fact obvious in the naming of Arbolite), allowing it to blend in better with existing domestic interiors, while also being considerably cheaper and easier to mass produce than if using real wood.

W.26-1981