COLLECTING GUIDES Anglepoise lamps
Perfect POISE Since their first appearance in the 1930s, Anglepoise lamps have been beacons of good design that remain in demand with switched-on collectors today
G
ood design lasts. When the twin fundamentals of an object’s form and function are in perfect unison, the result is a product that transcends changing fashions and remains in style across each proceeding decade.
40 ANTIQUE COLLECTING
Top Anglepoise Type 75 desk lamp by Margaret Howell, yellow ochre edition. All images, unless stated, courtesy of Anglepoise
Above Anglepoise founder George Carwardine (1887-1947) started the company in his garden workshop Right Anglepoise Model 1227 (1935)
On July 7, 1932, George Carwardine (1887-1947) patented his unique spring-design system for a lamp that would illuminate some of the world’s most stylish spaces and become a design classic. The Anglepoise lamp was the result of Carwardine’s departure from the bankrupt Horstmann Car Company, which allowed the automotive engineer to redeploy his talent for developing vehicle suspension systems into other areas.
Growing Ambitions Working in his garden workshop at his home in Bath, Carwardine set about exploring the capabilities of spring and leverbased mechanisms. His experimentation with various springs, levers, weights and cams eventually resulted in an innovative four-spring lamp that demonstrated an inherent flexibility of movement, combined with perfectly-balanced elements that allowed its light to be shone in any direction.
