Radio "The Sled"
Artist/Maker
DatesProduction: Production 1936 - 1940 Designed: Designed 1936
Material / Technique
Dimensionsh x l x w: Mått 22,5 x 44 x 20 cm
Inventory numberNMK 93/2016
AcqusitionDonated 2016 by the Friends of Nationalmuseum, Design Fund
Other titlesTitle (sv): Radio "The Sled" Title (en): Radio "The Sled" Label (sv): Radio The Sled Label (en): Radio The Sled
DescriptionDescription: At a time when most radios were as big as cupboards and made from veneered wood, The Sled was a breath of fresh air. Walter Dorwin Teague was a leading US industrial designer. In the Great Depression of the 1930s, the attractive modern forms and colours of industrial design helped to boost consumption. Industry was able to get production off the ground again. This radio was produced from 1936 to 1940, in a range of colours. The newly established Design Fund of the Friends of the Nationalmuseum has contributed to its first acquisition – the radio “The Sled”, by Walter Dorwin Teague, who is regarded as one of the top four industrial designers in the USA in the 1930s. Teague’s radio was a breath of fresh air in a time when most radios looked like ungainly wood cupboards. Speed and optimism was exactly what this streamlined design conveyed during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Manufactures had realised that mass production requires mass-consumption, so the gadgets of the machine era had to be attractively packaged. Industrial design was the new profession, and the designer’s primary role was to make attractive covers for the technology inside. Everything from pencil sharpeners and radios, to locomotives and ocean liners was given a streamlined style. Both the profession and the design spread to Sweden, as exemplified by 1950s and 60s irons.
Collection
Geographical origin
TechniqueIndustrial design
Object category