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Poul Henningsen Kuglekrone, 1930s

$18,941.81List Price

About the Item

Rare and important Poul Henningsen kuglekrone chandelier made by Louis Poulsen in Denmark in the 1930’s. The frame is made of darkend brass with original acid stained glass and black Bakelite. Poul Henningsen (September 9, 1894 in Ordrup – January 31, 1967 in Hillerød) was a Danish lamp designer, architect, revue writer, film director and social activist known by the initials PH. He was the son of the writer Agnes Henningsen and the stepson of MA, vice consul Mads Henningsen. His biological father was the writer Carl Ewald. PH had his own design studio from 1919, where i.a. the architects Hans Hansen and Mogens Voltelen worked on the clean drawing of the PH lamps. PH thought that electric bulbs cast an impossible light - either it was far too bright, or screens swallowed most of the light. He wanted a lampshade that sent the light out into the room at its full strength without dazzling. The PH lamp's three screens ensure that. He experimented in his terraced house until the lamp up in the ceiling, where the walls were painted black. A pram could be driven back and forth on rails. On the wagon, a candle stood on a cardboard plate and shone on a piece of paper with a grease stain through which the light shone. PH called it a photometer and used it for thousands of measurements of light strength and curves. The breakthrough came when a mutual friend, architect Thorkild Henningsen, introduced him to Sophus Kaastrup Olsen, director of Louis Poulsen Co. This was the start of a lifelong collaboration. Kaastrup Olsen had some lighting fixtures manufactured and sent them to the international exhibition Arts décoratifs et industriels modernes in Paris in 1925. PH won top prizes in all six classes of lighting fixtures. Forum was inaugurated in 1926 with a car exhibition where the PH lamp with glass shades made its debut. About PH's lamps that illuminated the room, B.T. wrote: "- the white birds that flew through the giant hall". Success was assured and PH's dream fulfilled: he had created a product that could be mass produced and he became a wealthy man. His greatest success was the PH5 – the one we know as the PH lamp (with metal shades), but it was only launched in 1958. He also designed the Koglen, the Kuglen and the Charlottenborg Pendlen, which all hang in Designmuseum Denmark. He lived off the income from his famous PH lamps and used the freedom it gave him to write revues such as Ølhunden, which was sung by Osvald Helmuth, and Grabe imter blanke ting (Man bind us by mouth and hand...) , which was about the German censorship, and which was sung by Liva Weel. He began collaborations with Bernhard Christensen and Kai Normann Andersen. Poul Henningsen, in addition to seeing cubism as his style ideal ("the genuine classless art of democracy"), was a functionalist, an atheist, a hater of the church, an advocate of sexual freedom and an opponent of unnecessary ornaments on buildings. Everything had to reflect their function. This is reflected in a number of buildings in Denmark, for which Poul Henningsen was the architect; like his own villa by Gentofte Sø. From 1941 he was architect for the amusement park Tivoli in Copenhagen. At the same time, he took a unique moderate position, because already in his writings in Kritisk Revy he was critical of Bauhaus' "laboratory architecture" and Le Corbusier. He instead recommended a golden mean and thus paved the way for moderate Scandinavian functionalism. Louis Poulsen, eg. Louis Poulsen Lighting A/S, formerly Louis Poulsen Co. A/S, is a Danish company that manufactures lamps and lighting designed by well-known designers. Previously, the company also had a wholesale company under the name Louis Poulsen El-teknik, which was acquired by Lemvigh-Müller in 2005. The company was founded in 1874 in Copenhagen by Ludvig R. Poulsen (1846-1906) as a wine import company under the name Copenhagen Direct Vin-Import-Kompagni. The company closed in 1878, but continued in the wholesale business. In 1892 - the same year that Copenhagen got its first and the country's second electricity plant - Ludvig R. Poulsen established a business selling tools and electrical articles in Istedgade 1 on Vesterbro in Copenhagen. In 1896, Ludvig R. Poulsen employed his nephew, Louis Poulsen (1871-1934), in the company. In 1906, Ludvig R. Poulsen died, who was succeeded by his nephew as director. In 1908 he moved the headquarters to Nyhavn 11, and in 1911 he admitted Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen (1884-1938) as a partner in the firm, which was then named Louis Poulsen Co. In 1914 the company's first catalog was published, and in 1917 Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen Louis Poulsen bought out the company for DKK 10,000 and thus became sole owner of Louis Poulsen Co. In 1918, the turnover reached 5 million. DKK In 1933, Louis Poulsen Co. opened. a department in Aarhus. From 1938, the company, which was transformed into a limited company on 1 November 1939, was led by civil engineer Emun Rager (1884-1959) as managing director, as Kaastrup-Olsen died that year. When buying Laur. Henriksen's Metalware factory in 1941 went to Louis Poulsen Co. A/S itself into the production of lighting fixtures. The magazine LP-NYT was launched the same year with Poul Henningsen as editor. A newly constructed building on Sluseholmen in Copenhagen was inaugurated in 1959 and was partly used for the assembly of fluorescent light fixtures and partly for electrical wholesale storage. In the same year, Jens Kaastrup-Olsen became managing director after Emun Rager. In 1964, the wholesale section was expanded by the acquisition of A/S Classen-Smidth, whereby the company gained branches in Odense and Vejle, and in 1965 Laur changed. Henriksens Metalvarefabrik name for Elpefa A/S, which moved to a newly built production hall on Sluseholmen, where all production and assembly of fittings were brought together. In 1967, I/S El-Salg was established. In 1976, Jens Kaastrup-Olsen died and was succeeded as managing director by Hans Cordes. The following year, the metalware production, which was previously an independent company called Elpefa A/S, was merged with Louis Poulsen Co. A/S. Louis Poulsen's B shares were listed on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange, and a shareholder agreement was concluded between the heirs in 1977 to ensure that the company remained in Danish hands. 1981 Louis Poulsen Co. bought A/S electrical wholesale section in S.C. Sørensen and thereby got eight electricity wholesale departments included in the purchase. In 1984, Elpefa Handels- og ingeniersfirma was established, in 1985 JO-EL A/S, and in 1987 the group's turnover reached DKK 1 billion. DKK In 1989, Louis Poulsen Co. acquired A/S Skandia Havemann's El A/S, in 1990 the Danish subsidiary Lightmakers A/S was established, and in 1995 the electrical wholesale section established a special department for telecommunications and data under the name Louis Poulsen Kommunikation. At the same time, the e-commerce system eLPc was introduced. In 1997, Erik Holm became managing director, and in the same year the Lighting Section bought the English company Outdoor Lighting Ltd. The measuring instrument section of Elpefa A/S was separated in 1998 as an independent limited company under the name ELMA A/S. The electrical engineering section simultaneously bought Norsk Elektro Teknikk ASA and Nordisk Elektro Teknik AB. The shareholders' agreement of 1977 led in the 1990s to several family feuds and lawsuits, but in 1999 an agreement was reached. The family allowed themselves to be bought out, while the company remained in Danish ownership. The new owners were the investment consortium Polaris and HD Invest. After the change of ownership, the Louis Poulsen shares were delisted on the Copenhagen Stock Exchange. In the wake of the company's 125th anniversary in 1999, the former A-shareholders and the new owners of the Louis Poulsen Group established a new Danish lighting fund, the Sophus Foundation, in 2000. In 2005, Louis Poulsen Elteknik A/S was sold to the Lemvigh-Müller Group, and the same year the factory was moved from Copenhagen to Vejen. The company's head office has been housed at Gammel Strand 28 since 2006, and this year Peter Thorsen joined as the new managing director of Louis Poulsen Lighting. In 2007, Louis Poulsen Lighting was taken over by the Italian lighting company Targetti Sankey SpA in Florence, which changed its name to Targetti Poulsen. In 2008, Peter Thorsen left Louis Poulsen Lighting and was succeeded by Lorenzo Targetti. Directors Hans Lindeberg, Kurt Carstensen and Søren Schølhammer were given responsibility for day-to-day management. In 2014, Louis Poulsen Lighting was bought back by the Danish capital fund Polaris. This chandelier is in good original condition with a beautiful patina.

Creator:
Louis Poulsen (Manufacturer),Poul Henningsen (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 27.56 in (70 cm)Diameter: 23.63 in (60 cm)
Power Source:
Hardwired
Voltage:
220-240v
Lampshade:
Included
Style:
Scandinavian Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Brass,Stained Glass,Patinated
Place of Origin:
Denmark
Period:
1930-1939
Date of Manufacture:
1930’s
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use.
Seller Location:
Valby, DK
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU6559234470082

Shop All Poul Henningsen

Poul Henningsen

The name Poul Henningsen is synonymous with the best and most innovative modern Scandinavian lamps and other lighting. The Danish designer created a signature vocabulary of fixtures with tiered and layered shades in sculptural arrangements that are at once naturalistic and geometric.

Henningsen grew up in a town on the outskirts of Copenhagen and studied architecture at the Technical University of Denmark. He would become a noted art critic, journalist and screenwriter, but his first love was lighting design.

Henningsen’s childhood home was illuminated by oil lamps. When his family switched to electrified lighting, he was alarmed and repelled by the harsh glare cast by an incandescent bulb, and in his late teens he began conducting quasi-scientific experiments to measure which materials and methods best diffused or reflected light to give it a warm brightness. His work came to the attention of the lighting-fixtures firm Louis Poulsen, which sponsored the development of a prototype lamp. The design won a gold medal at the 1925 Paris Expositions Internationales des Arts Decóratifs et Industriels Modernes — from which the term Art Deco derives. The lamp, whose three-part shade is said to be inspired by the arrangement of a dinner plate atop a soup bowl atop a teacup, became the basis for Henningsen’s most successful design, the PH 4/3 desk lamp.

All told, Henningsen would design some 100 lighting fixtures in his career. Some of his most notable creations are hanging lamps, which include the Septima (1929), a pendant composed of seven graduated frosted-glass layers; the Spiral (1942), made of a single ribbon of enameled aluminum; and the Artichoke lamp (1958), whose 70 glass or metal fins in a staggered and graduated arrangement on a central steel frame resemble those of its namesake. The last is likely Henningsen’s masterwork and an icon of mid-20th-century design. Like all Henningsen lighting designs, it is striking, sculptural and — thanks to his insistence on the primacy of the quality of the light cast — superbly functional.

Find a collection of authentic Poul Henningsen table lamps, floor lamps and other lighting on 1stDibs.

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