1970s Chrome Cosack Chandelier

Materials: Chromed metal (brass & iron) curved rods and tubes. Long chrome rod and canopy. 12 Bakelite E14 sockets. 

Height: 80 cm / 31.49”

Width: ∅ 65 cm / 25.59”

Electricity: 12 bulbs E14, 12 x 40 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, but silver tipped light bulbs are preferred.

Period: 1970s, 1980s – Mid Century Modern.

Designer: Hans Wilfried Hegger.

Manufacturer: Gebrüder Cosack – Gecos, Neheim-Hüsten, Germany.

Other versions: This 1970s chrome Cosack chandelier exists in brass. Bigger and smaller chandeliers exists. Also wall lamps, flush mounts and table lamps were made.

These lamps were also sold by Design M, the company of Ingo Maurer. Helestra, another German company produced comparable lamps.

Hans Wilfried Hegger

Hans Wilfried Hegger is an architect and designer. His company is named  H + Hegger GmbH, and it is located in Korschenbroich, Germany. Hans Hegger designed many lamps for the Cosack company. Hegger received an iF Design Award in 2013 for a LED flush mount produced by Schmitz-Leuchten.

Cosack Leuchten

The Gebrüder Cosack (Gecos) company was founded in 1848 as a metal processing plant in Neheim-Hüsten, Germany by Egon, Friedrich and Theodor Cosack together with Gottliebe Tappe. It was named Metallwarenfabrik Tapp + Cosack. In the beginning they made liturgical items, crosses and upholstery nails made of brass and they also produced kerosene lamps. Later the company came to the production of electric lamps.

After the Second World War Cosack pursued a modern direction. A best seller were copper lighting for restaurants. It is said that the company was declared bankrupt in 1984, but the last catalogue I have (1989 -1990) was published in 1989.

Best known designers: Gottfried Stürzenhofecker, K. H. Kinsky, Hans Wilfried Hegger, Hans-Joachim Groth, Burkhard Panteleit, Joachim O. Becker, Prof. Friedrich Becker, Waldemar Rothe and Jan Armgardt. 

Gebrüder Cosack (Gecos) received 15 iF Design Awards. 

Sputnik

The earliest design of these sputnik lamps dates back from the late 1950s, when the Soviets launched their Sputnik 1 satellite into orbit in 1957: the space age has begun. Gaetano Sciolari was one of the first designers of this type of lamps, if not the first.

Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin (9 March 1934 – 27 March 1968) was the first human to journey into outer space, when his Vostok spacecraft completed an orbit of the Earth on 12 April 1961.

VLM Components

All the electric parts were made by VLM Components. The company was founded in 1945 in Buccinasco, a small village near Milan, Italy. VLM Components is part of the Relco Group, founded in 1967. Today they are the owners of the brands Relco, Leuci, Relco Lighting, VLM Components and Segno. VLM Components became famous for the switches they produce which were designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1968.