Lot Essay
At at the time of the 1989 'Interior West' exhibition, this music player was the only known piece of labeled Molesworth furniture.
Decorating items such as radios and pianos to resemble period furniture was not uncommon during the 1920's and 1930's. Many advertisements of the time show these products fitted out as Renaissance chests or even as architectural forms such as skyscraper buildings.
cf. Lisa Phillips, et. al., High Styles, p.75, for an Atwater Kent Radio advertisement of 1925 which reads "Here is a Radio Set which simply melts into the decoration of any room...Perhaps you still think of Radio as a tangle of wires and untidy parts to be relagated to the cellar or the attic. But now Radio, thanks to this set, has moved into the rooms where the family lives. It has now become decorative as well as entertaining."
Decorating items such as radios and pianos to resemble period furniture was not uncommon during the 1920's and 1930's. Many advertisements of the time show these products fitted out as Renaissance chests or even as architectural forms such as skyscraper buildings.
cf. Lisa Phillips, et. al., High Styles, p.75, for an Atwater Kent Radio advertisement of 1925 which reads "Here is a Radio Set which simply melts into the decoration of any room...Perhaps you still think of Radio as a tangle of wires and untidy parts to be relagated to the cellar or the attic. But now Radio, thanks to this set, has moved into the rooms where the family lives. It has now become decorative as well as entertaining."