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knobs, the front is enameled in one of four colors (red, blue, brown,
and yellow) and decorated with chrome circles and horizontal lines.
One of the circles contains the textured speaker cloth. It is the only
radio with such a variety of materials and yet the effect is a seamless and
subtle unity. It is perhaps a highpoint of the integration of form, color,
and texture in the evolution of radio cabinetry, these criteria also
forming the mantra of the industrial designer and underpinning much
of Art Deco styling.

The Heritage of the Radio
Radio brought the world into the home, opening channels to all
sorts of news and entertainment, breaking down isolation and privacy,
exposing people to an expanding world of listening opportunities. For
example, music in the home in the19th century before the advent of the
gramophone was at an amateur level affected by family members on
their musical instruments. The gramophone and record player were
popular in the first two decades of the 20th century but were overtaken
Sparton “Cloisonne” by the radio from the mid-1920s to the 1950s when individual
by Walter Dorwin Teague, recordings and the invention of stereo sound became
U.S., 1939
desirable. Radio dramatically increased the number of
individuals listening to music and expanded the
are highly collectible and valuable, not so much for audience for music to all ages and all social classes.
their design lineage, but for their genuine beauty and Initially, all music was live on radio with bands and
visual appeal. entertainers performing in the studio, but improved
Some 37 designers have been identified who created recording methods in the 1930s allowed for
Art Deco radios, with most coming from the U.S. and programming flexibility and with the networking of
UK, but with a representative each from Germany, radio stations hugely expanded the listener base.
Italy, and Holland. Of the Americans, Harold van A beautiful radio can satisfy all the senses. Looking
Doren and Raymond Loewy started the ball rolling in at the colors and shapes is just a visual delight. Run
1933. Van Doren became the “president of the Society your hand over the surface of a Catalin or bakelite
of Industrial Design;” Loewy was later known as the radio and the smoothness and fluid curves are almost
“father of streamlining,” “the father of industrial Two examples of chrome sensual. When you turn on an old valve radio there
design,” and “the man who shaped America.” radios, USA, 1950 is first nothing, then a hum, and then the crackle of
Norman Bel Geddes is known as the “man who static. These aural cues speak of a time past and of
designed America,” and Walter Dorwin Teague “the another social milieu.
dean of industrial design.” John Vassos was called the The streamlined radio cabinet was a new style of
“the quintessential modernist.” All of these men are modern object in home décor. It represented and was
more famous for other (mainly later) creations … symbolic of, the new machine-age future and this was
everything from a matchstick to a city. by virtue of its aesthetics, independent of the core
In the UK the Ekco Company led the world in the audio function and its benefits.
early 1930s using well-known architects such as Wells Today, radio is part of a blended barrage of modern
Coates, Serge Chermayeff, J. K. White, Arthur digital broadcasting and future generations will most
Collins, and Misha Black to produce modern style likely not recognize a radio as a discrete device. Radio
radios in the new plastics. Coates designed the first still serves as an entertainment and information medium
round radio in the world and refined the use of the circle within the and, in a more modern iteration, an arbiter of social exchange. But as
radio itself … a feature which spread throughout the world. But try as it dissolves into the cocktail of modern digital mass media, it is
they might, Ekco, for all their beautiful designs, could not get the important to articulate the evolution of its social, technical, and design
British public to buy a colored radio until the late 1940s. In Italy, we history. There was a time when radios were beautiful and after a
have the Castiglioni Brothers and Louis Kalff in the Netherlands for the hundred years it would be a shame if they were forgotten.
Philips Company. Walter Maria Kersting in Germany from 1933 was
notable for utilizing radio design for Nazi political and propaganda
purposes. Peter Sheridan, AM, BDS, MDS, FICD, is a respected historian,
lecturer, author, and collector. He has written a number of monographs on
Materials that Mattered Art Deco and lectured at the Art Deco World Congresses in 2007 and
1936 saw the first use of Catalin (almost exclusively used in the U.S.) 2013. Peter is a committee member of the Art Deco & Modernism Society
by the Fada Company. Catalin was a casting compound commonly and a guest lecturer on design history at the College of Fine Arts, University
used for jewelry and with glorious of New South Wales. As a photographer, Peter is a leading authority on
translucent colors. This was perhaps clinical photography.
the first introduction of mix-and-match Deco Radios - The Most Beautiful
elements for retail selection with the Radios Ever Made, written by Peter
Catalin cabinet in one color-matched to Sheridan, explores the untold story of
the grill and knobs in another. An example famous industrial designers who used a new
is Dorwin Teague’s tiny Sparton style, new materials, and mass production
Cloissone of 1938 which is probably in the turbulent times of the 1930s and 40s
the most cultured and evolved of to create beautiful, colored, streamlined
all the Art Deco radios. table-top radios, starting a trend that
With a white Catalin brought modern Art Deco styling into homes
cabinet (which fades all around the world. To order this
over time to butter- book you can visit his website at
scotch) and tenite (a www.petersheridan.com, or buy it directly from Schiffer
brand of cellulosic EGM, Mexico, 1940 Publishing at www.schifferbooks.com
thermoplastic material)
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