Ekco AD-65

Wells Coates, the architect and furniture designer, was born in Canada in 1895. He designed furniture for the British furniture manufacturer Pel and designed the Lawn Road flats in Hampstead, London. He died in 1958. In this radio design he exploited the properties of Bakelite and did not disguise the machine with cabinet-work. This model, which uses brown plastic to simulate burr-walnut, was more popular than the more industrial black plastic version. The severe geometric shape defined the visual vocabulary of radio design for many years and Coates produced several variations on this before 1945.

Radio · Southend-on-Sea · 1932. Bakelite (compression-moulded phenol formaldehyde), stainless steel, woven cloth.. By Coates, Wells. Victoria and Albert Museum, London.