Raak Step By Step Wall Lamp

Materials: Round black painted metal mount. Round frosted white opal glass lampshade. Porcelain E27 socket.

Width: ∅ 35 cm / 13.77”

Height: 15 cm / 5.90”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 100 watt maximum, 110 /220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used. Not a specific one preferred. But for white glass it is best to use frosted or white bulbs.

Period: 1980s.

Designer: To be appraised.

Manufacturer: Raak, Aalsmeer, The Netherlands.

Other versions: The Raak Step By Step wall lamp also exists with a circular fluorescent tube of 22 watt, as you can see in the 1982 catalogue. It does not appear in catalogues from the 60s or 70s.

Translated text: “The staircase glass is streamlined, step by step a step narrower. The metal mounting plate keeps everything under control.”

The designer is not mentioned in the 1982 catalogue, unfortunately. But the designers named in the beginning of the catalogue are: Youri Agabekov, Bertrand Balas, Maija Liisa Komulainen, Nanny Still McKinney, Sergio Asti, Paul Driessen and Gioto Stoppino. Maybe it is one of those designers.

Raak

The Dutch company Raak was founded in 1954 by Carel O. Lockhorn (18 June 1923 – 6 October 2004), a previous employee of Philips Lighting Eindhoven. Raak, which means “to hit” in Dutch, implies design which precisely “hits the nail on the head”.

Raak is best known for their organic modern design of the 1960s and 1970s which combined glass & metals for a sophisticated futuristic style.

The light company collaborated with several international designers and architects, including Bertrand Balas, Evert Jelle Jelles, Frank Ligtelijn, Ger Vos, Jan Jasper Fayer, Li Helo, Maija-Liisa Komulainen, Nan Platvoet, Nanny Still-Mackinney, Nico Kooi, Sergio Asti, Tapio Wirkala, Willem van Oyen, Ad van Berlo and many others.

Collaborations 

Raak also collaborated with other companies. They worked with the German Peill + Putzler for this Raak Globe lamps. Peill + Putzler produced the glass. They also sold lamps made by Peill + Putzler, such as a pendant lamp designed by Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner. For the Raak Discus the glass was made by Bega, also a German company. For the Stalactites flush mounts a cooperation with the Belgian Val Saint Lambert was undertaken in the late 1950s. Raak also sold some lamps that were produced by Staff Leuchten (Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerke GMBH) from Germany. iittala from Finland produced the glass for the Suomi pendant lamps, and so on…

Carel Lockhorn sold the company in 1974 to ITT but remained a director until 1977. In 1980 Raak merged with BIS Lighting from Aalsmeer, also in The Netherlands and was renamed into BisRaak. In 1986 the Raak company became independent again. The company got a business appearance and only the colours white, black and grey were still processed.

In 1999, Raak merged with Artilite B.V. and Indoor B.V. and became CLA: Centrum voor Lichtarchitectuur B.V. in Drachten (Centre for Light Architecture). Lichtarchitectuur (light architecture) was the Raak tagline from the beginning in the 1950s. The Centre for Lighting Architecture was founded by Egbert Keen. The company was declared bankrupt on 19-05-2011.

Raak received 26 iF Design Awards. They only started participating since 1980. Otherwise it would undoubtedly have been many more.