Telephone
Siemens & Halske A.G., Munich, Germany
est. 1847
c. 1955
A molded-plastic rotary desk telephone by Siemens & Halske from around 1955, intended to provide a compact, user-friendly telephone for the modern home.
Four identical telephones sit in a row, their smooth, sculpted silhouettes and glossy finishes—black, pale green, cream, and deep red—creating a restrained, rhythmic composition with the circular dials partly visible beneath the integrated handsets.
The piece illustrates postwar industrial design’s turn to plastics and streamlined forms to mass-produce affordable, attractive household technology and helped define the look of midcentury consumer electronics.
Medium
Plastic
Dimensions
Each: 5 5/8 x 5 3/4 x 7 3/4" (14.3 x 14.6 x 19.7 cm)
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of the manufacturer
Accession
458.1956.1-4
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
