14 minute read
shines a light on the design classic – the Anglepoise lamp
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
Good 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.
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.
Left Anglepoise Original 1227 mini desk lamp in jet black
Right Celebrated designer Sir Kenneth Grange reinvigorated Anglepoise
Below Anglepoise Model 90 (1973)
Below right Anglepoise Model 1208 Prototype (1932)
Standing on a heavy base that anchored the light to a surface, and with its bulb situated inside a heavy shade, the beam could be focused to any angle by instant adjustment - ‘obedient to the lightest touch’, as later marketing messages conveyed. The design also claimed to reduce electrical consumption by up to 25 per cent, due to the shade reducing unnecessary glare from its low energy 25-watt bulb.
Full Beam
Carwardine’s new light, the Model 1208 Prototype, was soon in strong demand but his small-scale production capabilities strained to keep up with the influx of orders. In 1934, he took the decision to license his design to Herbert Terry & Sons, commencing a successful decades-long partnership with the Worcestershire-based spring manufacturer. The collaboration, agreed with Charles Terry, Herbert’s oldest son, saw the registration of the celebrated Anglepoise® name (after the trade marks registry at the patent office rejected Carwardine’s original name of ‘equipoise’).
Soon after saw the start of large-scale production of the Model 1208.
A year later, the company unveiled the next stage in the product’s continuing evolution, further finessed from its initial industrialstyle design, in the shape of a threespring Anglepoise® Original 1227 aimed at the domestic market.
The innate beauty, sleek functionality and effortless movement of the Original 1227, emulating the attributes of the human arm, led to its universal recognition as a British design classic that remained in production for more than 30 years.
Along with the use of three springs, rather than four, (the same mechanism available today) early production saw the lamp’s design further adjusted to allow for a 40-watt bulb in a widened shade, as well as a base made up of two tiers.
Carwardine remained a central figure in the company’s design department and was responsible for the evolution of a number of products, ranging from lamps in hospital operating theatres, to those used by navigators onboard military aircraft. (In 1985, a WWII plane salvaged from Loch Ness still had its nagivator’s lamp in situ and, more remarkably, in working condition.)
Light Years
Over the following decades, Anglepoise continued to be the pace-setter for modernist lighting, expanding its product line. It included the Model 75, with a different shape of shade from the Original 1227; the 1973 Model 90 was produced in a range of colours, while 1985 saw the launch of the Apex 90 – another modern interpretation of the Original 1227.
While the various lamps were produced under the auspices of Herbert Terry & Sons, during the 1970s the company was sold to Associated Spring. However, the original founder, Herbert Terry’s grandson, John Terry, acquired the lighting part of the business from Associated Spring and created the separate brand, Anglepoise which continues today.
Today the company remains a family business and is run by Herbert’s great-great grandson, Simon Terry.
Balancing acts
With its acknowledged position as a design muse, the company has worked with some heavyweight names in British design. In 2003, the legendary product designer, Sir Kenneth Grange, took on the mantle of design director and set about reinvigorating the brand’s product line, commenting: “The Anglepoise is a minor miracle of balance, a quality in life we do not value as we should.”
Other well-known names have collaborated with the brand in recent times, including the fashion designer Sir Paul Smith and the ‘queen of understated fashion’, Margaret Howell. For the model ‘Anglepoise + Paul Smith’, the designer took inspiration from the Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian to colour the Type 75 range. While Howell, a long-term champion of the brand, partnered on a six-piece collection for Grange’s Type 75, including the yellow ochre edition 2012, colour-matched from an original 1970’s Anglepoise.
More recently the company partnered with the National Trust on its Original 1227 range to release a table, desk and floor lamp which will also raise funds for a Surrey modernist villa, The Homewood, in Esher, designed by the architect Patrick Gwynne.
Above Designer Margaret Howell has collaborated with Anglepoise. Image courtesy of Line Klein
Below Sir Paul Smith brought colour combinations to his collaboration. Image James Mooney
Bottom 'Anglepoise + Paul Smith’ Type 75 giant floor lamp
&AQ
Simon Terry, managing director of Anglepoise and the great-great grandson of its founder, shines a light on the company’s enduring appeal
QWhy do Anglepoise lamps remain such design classics?
AIt’s a simple formula ... function over form. It’s ultimately a product that puts light exactly where it is needed and solves a genuine problem. It’s a design that has always stayed true to its roots, and this is what gives it its mass appeal.
QHow was the company revolutionary?
AIt became a world leader in springs and metal pressings, actively developing new techniques and technology in metal, which allowed it to invent and develop many new product categories for a growing market.
QWhich model do you think best exemplifies Anglepoise?
AFor me it’s the Type 75, designed in 2004 by Sir Kenneth Grange, the ‘father of modernism’, who became design director of Anglepoise in 2003. It’s a newer model in our collection that is, without doubt, already a design classic in its own right.
QHow does Anglepoise continue to influence lighting design?
ANearly every single articulated desk lamp that has followed has been inspired by, or really owes its existence to, the Anglepoise. It really invented the whole category of task lighting.
QHow has the company managed to stay relevant?
ABy sticking to ‘growing the core’ and understanding what made us great in the first place, while carefully keeping things relevant for today with subtle changes.
QHow important has Sir Kenneth
Grange been in its recent history?
AI have worked with Kenneth for 20 years now. He really has been central in bringing the companies design ethos bang up to date, and allowed us to celebrate the modernist aesthetic, alongside our more heritage products.
QTell us about the upcoming book from Jonathan Glancy?
ACalled Spring Light, it is a celebration not only of Anglepoise as a product, but its influence and position within the wider cultural context. We didn’t want to create another boring company history book and Jonathan really made this a visually stunning book with a fun narrative. It’s the first book written about us in more than 150 years of existence, and it also gives a pleasing nod to the future.
QWhat does the future hold for
Anglepoise lamps?
AAlready five generations in as a business, we are ready and poised for the next. We will continue with our brand message to ‘abandon darkness’, providing a true guarantee for life, which is unique in the world for an electrical or lighting brand. Although we hope that others will follow our lead soon.
Right Anglepoise Model 75 (1968)
COLLECTING GUIDE
Otto Billström, 20th-century design specialist at Essex auctioneers, Sworders, reveals his tips on buying the design classic at auction
In the current market climate, when good-quality design is fetching higher prices than ever, the humble Anglepoise lamp bucks the trend – offering a British design icon, close to a century old, at a very affordable price.
So, what should you look for in an Anglepoise? The classic model 1227, designed in 1935 and still produced to this day, continues to be immeasurably popular with good vintage examples making between £80-£120.
Due to its versatility and the vast quantities produced over the years, they have found their way into workshops, television studios and even the cockpits of WWII bombers.
Buyers can expect to pay more for the increasingly rare WWII-era lights, which saw the metal shades replaced by Bakelite due to material shortages and restrictions. Expect to pay around £300.
Two other models to look out for are the earliest models (both of which predate the 1227) namely the 1208 and 1209. Produced in large numbers, both can be found around the affordable £150-£300 mark. During the 1940s, the 1209 was also the first Anglepoise to receive an external collaborator when the French fashion house Hermès produced a limited version with a leather-clad foot.
These have since become highly-desirable collectors’ items, with auction prices today acheiving £2,000-£3,000.
RARE FINDS
But it was in the 1930s, with the Herbert Terry & Sons product catalogues, when some of the most extraordinary Anglepoise models were created. To appeal to a wide range of professional markets, George Carwardine designed a variety of specialist lights based around the 1208 and 1209 models. These ranged from the model 1313 (designed for garage mechanics to see around and under cars) to the ceiling-suspended, fourarmed, 1288, retailed as a medical and dental unit.
Being a rare find, a 1313 in worn condition can still make between £300-£500. As only a few, if any, 1288s have survived into today’s market, collectors looking for a contemporary counterpart may look to the Dear Ingo chandelier designed by Ron Gilad for Moooi, which often fetches between £700-£1,000 at auction.
These are only some of the many models of a design, which has been reinvented and reinterpreted for more than 90 years. The universality of the Anglepoise lamp, and its various models, continues to define private and public spaces around the world.
1 Anglepoise lamp in green and black sold at Sworders for £150 in June 2016. All images courtesy of Sworders 2 A machinist’s lamp with patinated black support on later stand, sold for £550 at Sworders in July 2020 3 A cream Anglepoise lamp on stepped base, 90cm high, sold for £75 at Sworders in May 2021 4 A mid-20th century Anglepoise lamp on castors, sold for £110 at Sworders in March 2020 5 An Anglepoise desk light with a moulded, stepped stand and two Kaiser Idell lamps, sold for £240 at Sworders in June 2017 1
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AUCTION OF ANTIQUES & COLLECTABLES
Wednesday 2nd February 2022 at 10am Farleigh Court Golf Club, CR6 9PE Viewing available
Tel: 020 8468 1010 Email: info@catherinesouthon.co.ukFor all enquiries please call 0208 468 1010 or email info@catherinesouthon.co.uk WWAd03-FREE AntiqueCollecting 216x143mm.qxp_Layout 1 10/01/2022 16:32 Page 1
ENGLISH & EUROPEAN CERAMICS & GLASS
TUESDAY 26TH APRIL 2022
A fine pair of Minton pâtesurpâte vases by Marc Louis Solon, c.1889 Estimate £6,00010,000*
www.woolleyandwallis.co.uk
*Visit woolleyandwallis.co.uk/buying for additional charges on final hammer price ENQUIRIES Clare Durham +44 (0)1722 424507 cd@woolleyandwallis.co.uk
An Auctioneer’s Lot
Charles Hanson praises the work of the Austro-British potter Lucie Rie as a trio of her pieces goes under the hammer
Left Lucie Rie (19021995): pouring jug, 10.8cm high
Below Lucie Rie in her studio in Albion Mews, reproduced with kind permission of the Crafts Study Centre, University for the Creative Arts
Below right Lucie Rie (1902-1995) green glazed flared conical bowl. Diameter approx 16.5cm, height approx 10cm, sold for £4,000
Below far right Lucie Rie (1902-1995): cylindrical beaker, c. 1958, 11cm high
While Chinese ceramics might grab the headlines, studio pottery is also sought after with pieces by important makers selling for thousands of pounds.
It’s always a pleasure to see Dame Lucie Rie’s work come up for sale, as was the case recently when three pieces by the Austrian-born potter went under the hammer, with one bowl selling for £4,000, outstripping its pre-sale guide of £2,000.
60-year career
Born in Vienna in 1902, Rie fled to London in wartime and went on to change the landscape of ceramics in Britain. Her vision and inventiveness helped elevate pottery to the world of fine arts. Her pottery has a gentle, modern, textured feel that would fit any interior. The beauty of good design is that it never dates. It lasts forever.
Rie influenced many during her 60-year career and developed inventive kiln processing.
Unlike most other potters of the period, Rie’s works were fired only once and the glaze was applied by brush when the clay was still raw and unfired. Not only did a single firing make economic sense, it resulted in surfaces, textures and colours that appeared more vivid.
Lucie was the youngest child of Benjamin Gomperz, a Jewish doctor who was a consultant to Sigmund Freud. She studied pottery under Michael Powolny at the Vienna Kunstgewerbeschule, a school of arts and crafts associated with the Wiener Werkstätte, in which she enrolled in 1922.
GROWING SUCCESS
By 1937, Rie won a silver medal at the Paris International Exhibition but war clouds were gathering. A year later, Rie fled Nazi Austria to settle in London. Around this time, she separated from her husband, Hans Rie, a businessman who she married in Vienna in 1926.
After the war, to make ends meet, she made ceramic buttons and jewellery for couture fashion outlets. Some of these are now displayed at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia in Norwich.
In 1946, Rie hired Hans Coper, a fellow Viennese refugee, with no experience in ceramics, to help her fire the buttons. Though Coper was interested in learning sculpture, she sent him to a potter named Heber Mathews, who taught him how to make pots on the wheel. Rie and Coper exhibited together in 1948. Coper became a partner in Rie’s studio, where he remained until 1958. Their friendship lasted until Coper’s death in 1981.
Bernard Leach
Rie was also a friend of Bernard Leach, a leading figure in British studio pottery. She was impressed by his views, especially concerning the ‘completeness’ of a pot. But despite his influence, her brightly-coloured, delicate, modernist pottery stands apart from Leach’s subdued, rustic, oriental work. She stopped making pottery in 1990 after suffering the first of a series of strokes and died in 1995, aged 93. Such was her impact, her studio was moved and reconstructed in London’s V&A.
Charles Hanson is the owner of Derbyshire-based auctioneers Hansons as well as a well-known TV personality. Hansons’ next sale is on February 5 at its Oxfordshire saleroom, for more details go to www. hansonsauctioneers.com. To learn more about Rie’s work in a very special collection turn to page 28.
