Teleavia

Catalogue number #109417386

Teleavia TV 1	Teleavia TV 2	Teleavia TV 3	Teleavia TV 4 'insides'

Description:

The famous Teleavia television made in France in 1958 is one of the major post war TV design icons and arguably a major piece of "Twentieth Century Design" in its own right. It was not simply designed and produced 'just to look different' but also primarily to answer several perceived "problems" associated with the then current televisions available on the market. The 'solution' was a daringly audacious and radical design with a large 54 cm cathode tube and panoramic screen. Firstly the fixed angle and orientation of existing TV screens was not maximised for best viewing unless the position and height of the person watching the set was fixed by pre-positioning the seating arrangements and large screen televisions of the period were in heavy wood cabinets and not easily moved around to different locations even when mounted on casters. The Teleavia answered this problem by being lighter for its size due to its minimilist cabinet and was easily moved on semi-spherical rollers. The "problem" of the screen height was solved by enabling the screen to be tilted vertically with the use of an adjusting screw on a strut at the rear of the tube pod so the screen angle could be very simply angled to direct the screen at the viewer regardless of the height of their head and the whole TV pod could be simply turned on its axis to point it in any direction in the horozontal plane. The "problem" of the 'ugly' screen mask was solved by making the mask as an integral part of the tube housing which was shaped to the front profile of the TV tube and by extending it forward helped to shade the screen from extraneous light sources. Thus the ugly mask 'disappeared' in an elegant manner. The enclosing of the cathode tube in its own pod was also particularly effective in protecting it from dust - it is a virtually dust-free environment. Easy access for servicing the set was a major part of the design. In other televisions of the period the chassis and tube were crammed together inside the TV set housing making access to the more remote parts awkward and difficult but because the tube and chassis were physically separated in the Teleavia access for servicing was simple (see picture). This feature was copied with great success by the Philco in the US the following year with their Predicta range of televisions. The downside to all this innovation was that the radical design didn't suit the more traditional French tastes and because the French market was tiny compared to the US, the sets were very expensive and surviving examples are very rare. (Both halves of the cathode tube pod have the number '153' written by hand inside - I supect this may be a direct indication of the tiny numbers of this set that were manufactured. How many survive today? I have seen three examples and heard of another three in twelve years of looking for exmples). Finished in cream and deep purple with gold trim and a gold instrument panel this is one of the most striking and ground breaking television sets ever produced.

Sale Details:

Price: £ 4800.00

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