The Ekco A147 Festival was developed specifically for the Festival of Britain of 1951. Accordingly, its design was determinedly modern - sleek and pared-down. The cabinet is of glorious walnut, with a four-part urea formaldehyde speaker grille, emphasising that the radio provided for a quartet of pre-set stations. It was not otherwise tunable.
In 1951 the set cost 20 guineas, including tax, as advertised in The Trader. The cabinet of this example has been nicely refinished, although the EKCO lettering isn't, unfortunately, of the correct font or kerning. As can be seen from the twin lamp illumination, there's also some work to be done to align the tuning and the station indicator lamps.
those 2 lamps lighting at the same time IS correct if the station selector is switched to 'gram' position - it has pickup input sockets..
ReplyDeletei have an unusual one of these which doesnt have the 4 plastic station/speaker trims but a vertical yellow plastic bar covering all station lamps, this appears to be original as the case has to be drilled through to take the normal horizontal trims, and mine hasnt been.????
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