See more objects with the tag radios, presentation drawing, domestic interior.

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Object Timeline

1940

  • Work on this object began.

1949

  • Work on this object ended.

1998

  • We acquired this object.

2015

2024

  • You found it!

Drawing, Design for a Radio

This is a Drawing. It was designed by Alfons Bach and made for (as the client) Philco (Philadelphia Storage Battery Company). It is dated 1940s and we acquired it in 1998. Its medium is brush and dark brown ink, light brown and white gouache, light brown and black crayon on tan paper. It is a part of the Drawings, Prints, and Graphic Design department.

Streamlined designs were often realized in metallic chromes and shiny plastics, but this design renders a futuristically styled radio cabinet in steam-bent wood. Bach’s designs for home products and furnishings often repurposed elements to suit other products: the grill-like form concealing the radio’s speakers also appears in Bach’s designs for cylindrical containers and a scale.

This object was donated by Anita S. Bach and Alfons Bach. It is credited Gift of Alfons and Anita S. Bach.

  • Drawing (USA)
  • graphite, brush and yellow watercolor, white color pencil on tracing paper,....
  • Gift of John Bruce.
  • 1993-65-11

Our curators have highlighted 1 object that are related to this one.

Its dimensions are

H x W: 26.2 × 38.2 cm (10 5/16 × 15 1/16 in.) Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18 in.)

It is inscribed

Inscribed in pen and black ink, lower left: # 37013 - 22; lower right: DESIGNED BY ALFONS BACH

Cite this object as

Drawing, Design for a Radio; Designed by Alfons Bach (American, b. Germany, 1904–1999); Client: Philco (Philadelphia Storage Battery Company) (United States); USA; brush and dark brown ink, light brown and white gouache, light brown and black crayon on tan paper; H x W: 26.2 × 38.2 cm (10 5/16 × 15 1/16 in.) Mat: 35.6 × 45.7 cm (14 × 18 in.); Gift of Alfons and Anita S. Bach; 1998-71-2

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<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18669477/ |title=Drawing, Design for a Radio |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=19 April 2024 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>