light fantastic

Poul Henningsen.  Danish design maestro.  From the 1920's thru to the early 60's he was laying down the template from which many much 'modern' lighting has been traced.

His career in design apparently stemmed from observations during the early years of electric home lighting, when he observed that homes generally had bare bulbs on cords hanging from their ceilings, which he found to be ugly and harsh. 

He worked for many years on variations on the idea of pendant shades which diffused and directed the light, and concealed the source.

You would have to say, his designs haven't dated too badly, huh?  Many of his works from the 30's to the 60's are still being produced by Louis Poulsen, and reportedly about 50% of Danish homes have at least one example.

We have a few at the farm ...

We also have an enormous one stashed away - it's a pendant about 120cm tall with 10 or so metal rings - we plan to renovate our verandah over summer and give it a worthy place.  In the meantime there are a few pendant fittings and a couple of Henningsen's desk lamps on their way to our store on a slow boat from Scandinavia, so we will let you know when they arrive.