Moderne at it's best from France

[Dave A]

I thought you all may like to see a recent purchase from ebay. The photo is from the listing as I have not had time to do another photo.

I found this on ebay from a seller in France. With trepidation, I bid and became the only bidder in the world for this moderne gem from the 50's. It is a Philips B2F 72A in sheeps clothing. Sold as a Radiola RA 248 with a manual included in French. The manual is 1958 vintage. How it got the Radiola badge is unknown to me. How it got the two-tone hospital green styling is beyond answering.

It is LW/MW/SW/phono with a 220/110v selector plug on the back and is working perfectly. The diagonal cut in the cabinet on the upper left has a lamp that illuminates the face of the radio along with the usual backlit dial. True to moderne, no two lines of the cabinet are parallel. Slashing design lines are everywhere. The Radiola lettering on the little shelf is of increasing depth left to right. And the Mae West knobs are a vision to behold.

The 4 tubes are; UCH81, UBF80, UCL82, and UY85.

The seller asked for Western Union payment which scared me silly, but looking at his history, I felt safe. He was honest enough to email me that this was a second-hand shop purchase and he did not know the history. The seller has also been busy buying many radios from the states for his collection. The radio arrived via France Post/DHL and was the most perfectly packed item I have ever received.

If you have an uglier/better example of the era, please post it to save me from being so proud of this radio.

Dave A

[Tony V]

Hi Dave,
I like it! It definately screams extreme 50's and is a neat change of design concidering by the time this one was made, alot of vanilla plain boxes were being put out by everyone else for their radios. Cool find!
-Tony

[Nick_the_'Nole]

Damn, that is so ugly it's awesome. Almost like a Grundig on acid. Does the sound equal the other Philips sets of the era?

[Sandy G]

I wouldn't put it on the nightstand next to my bed.It MIGHT jump over on yr face in the middle of the night, & suck all the life out of you while you're sleeping. Are you sure it has tubes? They COULD be Brussels Sprouts masquerading, waiting to strike....-Sandy G., serious as a heart attack....

[axel]

the two Mae West knobs () are protruding to say the least but I wouldn't call the rest ugly at all - very interesting, au contraire! It has v o l u m e!

it would perhaps do better in white? or a two-tone white/light beige?

[Reece]

I wish you hadn't used the Mae West metaphor. Now I'm going to have to keep the picture.

Reece

[piece-it pete]

Very cool.

Pete

[Dave A]

Thanks for the compliments and good laughs!

Nick, it's only AM with a 5" or so speaker. Average sound, although I have not tried the phono input yet, and don't expect much.

Sandy, it is on the kitchen counter at the moment and I could swear that it moved overnight. Those short little legs you know.

Dave A

[Sandy G]

I tolja ! I tolja !! See ?!? See?!? You people would do well to listen to me...I tolja about that gawdam Kuba Komet, chasing somebody around the room, & pokin' 'em in the arse w/that big spike...-Sandy G.