Table Lamp

Designer: Wilhelm Wagenfeld, German, 1900–1990
Designer: Carl Jakob Jucker, Swiss, 1902–1997
Maker: Bauhaus Metal Workshop, Germany, active 1919–1933
Date: 1923–24
Material: Glass and nickel-plated brass
made in: Weimar, Germany, Europe
Classification: Lighting, metalwork
Collection: Decorative Arts and Design
Current Location: Not on view
Dimensions: overall: 15 x 7 in. (38.1 x 17.8 cm)
base only: 10 3/4 x 7 in. (27.3 x 17.8 cm)
shade only: 5 x 7 in. (12.7 x 17.8 cm)
Credit Line: Richard Brumbaugh Trust in memory of Richard Irving Brumbaugh and in honor of Grace Lischer Brumbaugh
Rights: Public Domain
Object Number: 165:1993a,b

NOTES

Faced with the challenge of designing an electric table lamp, two Bauhaus students adopted the glass sphere as inspiration. Their design, one of the few Bauhaus lamps that went into production, repeats the geometric shapes of the circle, cylinder, and hemisphere in clear and milk glass. Bauhaus designers believed that simple forms lent themselves to mass production. In fact, this lamp’s components had to be custom made, and the lightbulb’s heat cracked early versions of the shade, which proves that simple designs are not inherently functional.

Provenance

- 1982
Private Collection, Berlin, Germany

1982 - 1993
Manfred Ludewig, Berlin, Germany, purchased from private collection [1]

1993 -
Saint Louis Art Museum, purchased from Manfred Ludewig [2]

Notes:
[1] Manfred Ludewig stated in a telephone conversation with Saint Louis Art Museum curator Cara McCarty in May 2002, that he purchased the lamp from an individual who was a former student at the Bauhaus; he declined to name the previous owner [notes of conversation in SLAM document files].

[2] Minutes of the Collections Committee of the Board of Trustees, Saint Louis Art Museum, September 23, 1993.

We regularly update records, which may be incomplete. If you have additional information, please contact us at provenance@slam.org.