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.
PH Snake Chair, Chrome, Leather Extreme Indianred, Full Leather Upholstery
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The PH snake chairs flowing lines within its steel tube design are inspired by the strong yet flexible body of a snake. It is multi-use and fits any roo...
Chrome
PH Snake Chair, Chrome, Leather Extreme Mocca, Leather Upholstery, Visible Tubes
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The PH snake chairs flowing lines within its steel tube design are inspired by the strong yet flexible body of a snake. It is multi-use and fits any roo...
Chrome
PH Snake Chair, chrome, red painted satin matt, wood seat/back, visible tubes
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The PH Snake Chairs flowing lines within its steel tube design are inspired by the strong yet flexible body of a snake. It is multi-use and fits any room at home, in the apartment, i...
Chrome
PH Snake Chair, Chrome, Leather Extreme Walnut, Leather Upholstery, Visible Tube
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The PH snake chairs flowing lines within its steel tube design are inspired by the strong yet flexible body of a snake. It is multi-use and fits any roo...
Chrome
PH Snake Chair, Chrome, Leather Extreme Mocca, Full Leather Upholstery
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The PH snake chairs flowing lines within its steel tube design are inspired by the strong yet flexible body of a snake. It is multi-use and fits any roo...
Chrome
PH Snake Chair, Chrome, Leather Extreme Walnut, Full Leather Upholstery
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
The PH snake chairs flowing lines within its steel tube design are inspired by the strong yet flexible body of a snake. It is multi-use and fits any roo...
Chrome
Red Art Deco/Bauhaus Chair Made in 1940s Czechia, Restored Leather and Steel
Located in Brandys nad Labem, Středočeský kraj
Red Art Deco chair made in Czechia in the 1940s and professionally restored by our team. Material: chrome plated steel and leather Source: Czechi...
Steel, Chrome
Red Tubular Steel Cantilever Chrome Armchair, High Quality Leather, 1930s
By Mücke & Melder
Located in Brandys nad Labem, Středočeský kraj
"Made by Mücke Melder, an influential modernist furniture manufacturer that specialised in tubular steel designs. It has been restored and reupholstered by our professional refurbi...
Chrome
Red Tubular Steel Cantilever Chrome Armchair, High Quality Leather, 1930s
By Mücke & Melder
Located in Brandys nad Labem, Středočeský kraj
"Made by Mücke Melder, an influential modernist furniture manufacturer that specialised in tubular steel designs. It has been restored and reupholstered by our professional refurbi...
Chrome
Tubular Steel Chrome Bauhaus Chair by Hynek Gottwald - 1930 (Eisengarn)
By Hynek Gottwald, Hana Kucerova-Zaveska
Located in Praha, CZ
- 1930s - Designer: propably Hana Kucerova Zaveska - maker: Hynek Gottwald ( publicated in literature) - absolutely original condition, original isengarn/ iron fabric repaired - chro...
Steel, Chrome
1970s Minette Chair by Bruno Mathsson in original oxblood leather
By Bruno Mathsson
Located in Victoria, BC
Rare variant of the Minette chair designed by Bruno Mathsson during the 1970s. Preserved in exceptional original condition, this example reflects Mathsson’s lifelong exploration of c...
Beech, Bentwood
Streamline Art Deco Cantilever Chair Chrome & Red Vinyl Attr Kem Webber-Lloyds
By Kem Weber, lloyd manufacturing co.
Located in Topeka, KS
Fabulous streamline modern cantilever chair comprised of chrome frame and tomato red vinyl faux leather upholstery attributed to KEM Weber for Lloyd’s Manufacturing. Beautiful condition with wear as you would expect with a vintage piece. This one looks like it was seldom used! Please see photos, Circa Mid Century. WOW!!!! What a gorgeous tomato red streamline modern cantilever chair!!!! Attributed to KEM Weber for Lloyd’s Manufacturing and categorized in many design styles; Art Deco, Machine Age, Streamline Modern, Art Moderne, and Bauhaus. Too many awesome styles to choose just one… So, you pick!! This chair is comprised of a tubular chrome cantilever frame and is upholstered in a bright and beautiful red vinyl faux leather that demands attention. This piece has no tag or markings but is done in the style of the era’s greats: Gilbert Rohde, Wolfgang Hoffman, Warren McArthur, Donald Desky, Alfons Bach, Gilbert Rhode, Marcel Breuer, and from online searches attributed to KEM Weber for Lloyd’s Manufacturing. It doesn’t get much better than that!! You could use this fabulous chair in your living room, bedroom, sitting room, or kitchen. It would be a wonderful chair at a vanity or a stylish place to sit to take off your shoes in the entry way. The possibilities are truly endless. KEM Weber (1889-1963) was a German-born architect and furniture designer. His birth name was Karl Emanuel Martin Weber but in 1914, he changed his first name to a less German sounding, 'Kem' when he became stranded in the USA after the outbreak of the First World War. Kem Architecture was part of the West Coast Modernist movement in America. His designs included many projects and products in Streamline Modern, a form of Art Deco design and architecture that was extremely popular in the USA and Europe in the 1930s. This style emphasized curved forms and long horizontal lines; it was the epitome of sophistication and modernity in that era. Streamline Modern was used for everything from stainless steel cocktail shakers...
Chrome
