Fritz Schlegel’s classic bell-like light for Lyfa, the Schlegel-lampe, designed in 1938, inspired a number of similar designs with which it is often confused, including Jo Hammerborg’s Tarok for Fog & Mørup. The two lamps are pictured below, Hammerborg’s Tarok following the Schlegel-lampe and most easily distinguished from it by a diversion in the angle of the shade close to the outer edge.
Month: January 2011
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Hammerborg’s Tarok & the Schlegel lamp
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Another diamond-shaped Preben Dal gem
Featured in Danish homestyle magazine Bo Bedre in January 1962 when his Symfoni (final image below) was already on prominent display in Copenhagen’s illustrious interior design store Illums Bolighus, this Preben Dal light is composed of the same diamond-shaped facets as the Symfoni, but the overall form is less complex. Both lights were produced by HF Belysning, aka Hans Følsgaard Elektro A/S. We have translated the Bo Bedre piece from the original Danish:
Dip the light in soapy water and it is clean
This light has several advantages. It is formed by rhomboid-shaped metal pieces that are welded together into pentagonal rings and then powder-coated white. All slats are vertical, so that there is good ventilation in the lamp, and the dust does not settle on them. One can easily lift the shade from its bracket and clean it – simply dip it into a bucket filled with detergent or soapy water. The lamp’s maximum width is 25cm, its height 23cm, and it can take bulbs of up to 100 watts. It costs 75kr with fitting and lead. Preben Dal for H Følsgaard.
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F&M wall lamp is Helth not Panton
The owner of the pair of lights pictured below thought that they might be a rare wall-mounted version of Verner Panton’s Flowerpot. The Fog & Mørup labels present on the lights, however, reveal that there is no Panton connection – Panton never designed lights for F&M. Nor, indeed, was there ever any wall version of Panton’s Flowerpot, the light produced by Louis Poulsen in pendant, table and garden variations.
These lights’ actual identity is far more obscure, but in some ways just as interesting. The image below is a 1960s publicity shot from the time of the lamp’s introduction to the market by Fog & Mørup. Its name is Broby-lampe and its designer was one A Helth, about whom we know nothing and about whom we have been unable to find any information. If anyone out there can enlighten us, please leave a comment or email us at info@vintage-danish-lights.com.
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Poulsen’s IT lamp and the ghost of PH
In view of their seminal influence both in Denmark and internationally, it is no surprise that Poul Henningsen’s ideas on lighting design were guiding the in-house design department at Louis Poulsen even long after his death in 1967. His legacy was explicitly acknowledged in the directly derivative PH 80, issued by Poulsen in 1974 as a posthumous tribute to the designer’s 80th birthday, and also in the IT desk lamp, designed by Poulsen’s in-house team led by Bent Gansel Boysen and introduced in 1972. An advertisement for the lamp dating from October that year ran as follows:
So Poul Henningsen’s concept of a work light with an elliptical reflector has become reality. The elliptical form provides the best combination of maximum and evenly distributed light, and also creates a focal point, which can be very useful for demanding work or for the partially sighted.
An additional feature of the IT lamp was the so-called 3-lys (3-light) system, first seen the previous year in the Verner Panton-designed Poulsen light the Panthella, whereby a single specially created bulb provided a choice of brightness settings – in the IT lamp’s case 40, 60 and 100 watts. The IT was available in matte black, matte white or chrome.
