The Marconiphone was a brand of radios that were originally developed by the Marconi Company in the UK from 1923. The brand was sold to the Gramophone Company in 1929 as that company diversified into wireless technology. The Gramophone Company became EMI in 1931 and continued to make Marconiphone Radios until 1956.
This blog entry is an excuse to highlight some of the beautiful marketing images of the Marconiphone brand. They have been shared with us by the EMI Archive Trust, who have many more similar images in their vaults. If you are interested in learning more about Marconiphone and seeing more images you can organise a visit to the Archives by contacting them here.
The first two images come from the Memoranda of Sale of the Marconiphone brand in 1929. Heavily influenced by Art Deco, the brochure is Alfred Clark (the Managing Director of the Gramophone Company)’s personal copy. You can see his name in the bottom right hand corner.
It contains a personal message from Marconi himself:
This is a trade advertisement ecouraging dealers to stock Marconiphones from around 1930:
This wonderful consumer advert places the Marconiphone as a premium luxury item as is clear by the sophistication of the image and the 52 guineas price tag (about £3,000 at today’s prices):
Another consumer advert frome the early 1930’s which again has an art deco feel:
Finally here is a print advert from around 1933:
Sound Of The Hound 
The colour advertisement is a true work of art, but what is the significance of the ‘stereophonic’ reference in the trade ad. Surely not stereo as we know it today. Did the word have a different meaning then?
What beautiful documents! I would love to have material like this about my two Marconiphone radio-gramophones, the 274 (1933) and 245 (1936).
Hi Ronald,
Thanks for your comments. If you’d like to contact the EMI Group Archive Trust (we have a link on the right hand column on the home page) they may have the materials you mention.