9:30pm Thursday 25th March 2010
By Tom King
SIR Neil Macgregor’s BBC Radio 4 programme, A History of the World in 100 Objects, consists of 100 programmes.
Each programme is based on a particular item in the British Museum collection, building up into a history of the human race in terms of the everyday objects that shaped progress.
For the most part, the emphasis is on utilitarian, even humble possessions. Yet many are momentous in their significance.
One example is the little clay payment token from Babylon, number seven in the series. Historically speaking, this dull little disc is a bigger treasure than anything made of gold or jewels. It contains the earliest recorded use of writing, anywhere in the world.
To accompany the series, the BBC invited museum directors to compile a list of ten key items from their respective counties. South Essex has not fared well. The Canewdon Paddle, our greatest archaeological treasure, has been ignored. In the end, only two objects from this area made the list.
One is a World War Two identity card from Billericay. The other is a 20th century item that could be found in many homes.
The Wells Coates circular radio dates from the pioneering days of broadcasting, following the end of World War One. The hugely popular 1934 design was turned out in tens of thousands from the Ekco factory in Prittlewell.
Its commercial success rewarded the far-sightedness of Ekco’s founder and owner, Eric Kirkham Cole. He was the first manufacturer to marry modern ideas in visual design to radio sets. Before Cole, household radios had been encased in plain boxes, with no regard for appearance whatever.
Cole commissioned the leading Art Deco architect Wells Coates to bring aesthetic appeal to this booming mass market. The impact of the Ekco Circular Radio proved worldwide.
According to Tom Hodgson, from the Colchester and Ipswich Museum Service: “Pictures of the radio appeared around the world, inspiring other manufacturers, and helping to spark the communications revolution”
One of the few surviving examples of the radio is now on display in Southend Central Museum, Victoria Avenue.
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