Tape recorder, 'Minstrelle'; Peter Bell for Simon; London, 1959-60

Mains-powered domestic tape recorder, hardwood-veneered cabinet, brass detailing, various plastic elements, and rubber. The cabinet is shaped like a an inverted isoceles trapezium, it rests on four tall, narrow, black rubber feet, each of which is encircled by a brass band. The lid opens backwards on brass hinges. The front of the cabinet is covered with a grey and white woven fabric, behind which is a loudspeaker. The sides of the cabinet are stained dark brown.

Beneath the lid is the Garrard tape deck, into which a cassette can be fitted. The deck is white, and it is made from various hard plastics and has metal elements. The deck is attached to a hardwood-veneered board, and is slightly offset to the left of the object. The board is held down by four brass screws, one in each corner. To the left of the deck is a sliding control lever. In front of the tape deck are five cream plastic control knobs, each with brass detailing. In the centre is a 'magic eye' record level indicator. A clear plastic strip can be slid under the knobs to tell the operator their functions.

On the reverse of the cabinet is a grille for ventilation, and sockets for various inputs.

Given by Nick Woollacott

Given to the V&A in 2016 by Nick Woollacott, a collector of tape recorders. He first encountered tape recorders as a schoolboy in the early 1960s. He recalled, however, that he bought this object from a fellow collector whom he had known for years. That collector had bought it from the widow of the original purchaser who had recently lost her husband and was selling many of his personal effects. She lived near Henley.

The first successful patent for magnetic sound recording was issued in 1898 to Valdemar Poulsen (born Copenhagen, 1869-1942), a former trainee doctor who left medicine to pursue an interest in telecommunication. A patent was issued for his Telegrafon, a ‘wire recorder’ which stored sounds on steel piano wire. Poulsen had developed this device to be used in conjunction with telephones, as a recording machine. In the early years of telephone communications, only one conversation could pass down the line at one time. Poulsen’s idea was that a device could be used to record one statement or question at a time, which would be sent along the line when it was available, rather than waiting in a queue to have a conversation. The basic principle of magnetic recording is that magnetic material is excited by an electromagnetic recording head at a current proportionate to the signal it receives. It can then be played back by drawing the wire or tape across a similar head, but with no current applied, the varying magnetic field induces a similar varying electric current, recreating the original recording. Poulsen publicly demonstrated his machine at the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, where he recorded the voice of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, believed to be the oldest magnetic recording in existence.

Wire recorders were used for a variety of applications during the Second World War, and were marketed afterwards as a superior alternative to disc and wax-cylinder recorders. Plastic magnetic tape was developed in Germany before and during the War. It has been alleged that British and American soldiers entering the crumbling Third Reich late in the conflict were amazed by Nazi propaganda radio shows, which seemed still be to be running clearly, without interruption, despite the fact that presenters could not possibly be in their studios. This was attributed to advanced German tape recordings. German and Japanese patent rights were annulled post-war as part of war reparations As a result, the market for magnetic tape was soon opened up to the rest of the world.

Early applications of magnetic tape recording mirrored Poulsen’s original vision, they were used as automatic answering machines for office telephones. The first British-manufactured domestic tape recorder was the ‘Soundmirror’, made by Thermionic Products. The design for the ‘Soundmirror’ was licenced from the American company Brush (not to be confused with the British company, Bush). In Britain, domestic companies were protected from imports until 1952, so the British market missed out on high-quality recorders which were available at the time in Germany. After rationing ended, Max Grundig, a German company, found a foothold in Britain, and tape recorders began to find a regular domestic market. Towards the end of the decade, several hobby magazines dedicated to amateur tape recording began to appear. A television programme called ‘Sound’ was aired fortnightly on the BBC between 1961 and 1964, aimed at amateur audio recording enthusiasts. Early domestic tape recorders were expensive and were made in fairly limited numbers. Advertising literature focused on the diversity of domestic or business uses they could be set to. For many, objects of this type had no design precedent within the home, so had a ‘soft’ introduction, either through concealment within or integration into furniture of existing styles. The development of first the microcassette (by Philips), and then the integrated sound system (with turntable, radio and cassette recorder) by Japanese manufacturers in the 1960s and 1970s reduced demand for dedicated recording units. These advances also meant that many large British electronics companies were forced out of business at around the same time.

The Simon Sound Services Company was established in 1941 by Reginald W. Simon. They initially produced transportable disc recorders, manufacturing a 70lb (31kg) model for BBC war correspondents. The company sold their first tape recorder in 1950, the ‘Simphonic 1A’. Over the next few years, Simon developed a reputation for stylish case design, employing the British industrial designer Peter Bell to design their 1959 model, the ‘SP4’. The ‘Minstrelle’, introduced 1959-60 and also designed by Bell, epitomises this attention to styling, sporting a fashionably-tapered cabinet, splayed squat legs, brass detailing and a lid to conceal the high-tech Garrard recording apparatus. The ‘Minstrelle’ was aimed at a purely domestic market, to sit easily alongside modern home furniture. The Garrard tapes came as self-contained magazines, which meant they could be changed very easily. This new convenience was particularly emphasised in marketing for the ‘Minstrelle’. The product was not a commercial success, because of both the advanced but not widely-distributed Garrard magazines, and the high cost of the unit (39gns). Garrard had assumed that people using home recorders did not wish to spend time threading tapes into their machines, which proved to be a misjudgement (the home recording market was a small and enthusiastic group).

Simon produced only one more tape recorder, the ‘SP5’ in 1961 – another technologically advanced machine, designed this time by Lucas Mellinger. The company manufactured only for military and business customers after 1966.

W.20-2016