model P20B; British 1948 man. Marconiphone

Small 'personal' receiver in the shape of a lunch box with flip-up lid. The lid and base are made from moulded cream plastic. Attached to the bottom-right corner of the outside of the lid is a chromed metal 'G. Marconi' nameplate. All four sides of the case are covered with a wide continuous band of imitation snakeskin, with black metal edging. A leather strap handle is attached, via a chrome metal fitting, to the right-hand side of the case. The top of the inside of the case is covered with a cream metal panel incorporating, to the left, horizontal cutaway venting for the loudspeaker and to the right a small circular tuning scale. Below the scaleis a small recessed black plastic volume control; in the centre of the panel is a small black wave change switch.

Purchased by the V&A Circulation Department in 1977, from Tudor Rees (Vintage Services) of Bristol [77/1157]. On entry to the Museum the condition of this set was noted as: 'top and bottom badly scratched, otherwise good'.

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.

Marconiphone started life in 1922 as a branch of the Marconi Company, manufacturing for the domestic market. The company was bought in 1929 by the Gramophone Company (later EMI), who purchased the right to use the Marconiphone name and trademark ‘G. Marconi’ signature.

This compact, portable, faux-snakeskin-covered, 'vanity case' radio was designed to appeal to a perceived new post-war commodities market for women. British radios made after the Second World War tended to be more colourful than pre-war examples, and they took advantage of technologies developed during wartime, in this instance: miniature valves. Before the war, most radios had been more-or-less stationary fixtures in the home, being literally 'part of the furniture'. Afterwards many were sold as lighter 'second sets' for households, to be used in the kitchen or bedroom. It is switched on and off automatically when the lid is raised and lowered. Its batteries would have given it around 30 hours playing time.

CIRC.46-1977