An original G Plan teak hi-fi cabinet from the 1960s/early 1970s, designed specifically to house the increasingly important components of the domestic music system.
The hinged top lifts to provide access to a record player, while the glazed cabinet below accommodates an amplifier, tuner or record storage. An adjustable shelf, open rear for cables and ventilation, and original castors make this a particularly good example of furniture responding directly to new technology entering the post-war home.
The design is characteristically G Plan: warm teak veneers, softly rounded edges, a projecting top and base and a restrained wooden pull. Its quiet appearance is achieved through proportion rather than ornament, allowing the equipment itself to become part of the interior.
Today it remains entirely usable for its original purpose — particularly for a turntable and vintage hi-fi — but works equally well as a compact record, drinks or display cabinet.
Conservation
Carefully cleaned and lightly conserved in our studio workshop. The original finish has been retained, together with minor traces of previous use. Rather than stripping the cabinet back to new wood, the conservation has preserved the colour and character acquired over more than half a century.
Anew but not new.
Dimensions: Height 74 cm × Width 48 cm × Depth 48 cm.
Why it works
This is a lovely little document of changing domestic life. By the 1960s, the hi-fi was no longer simply hidden inside a large radiogram: separate components and the record player were becoming objects to arrange, operate and display. G Plan responded by designing furniture around them.
