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Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner Tossa Pendant Lamp
Links (external links open in a new window)
Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner website
Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner iFdesign Awards
iF-Design awards for Peill+Putzler
Vintageinfo
Lamps by Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner
Many thanks to Thomas from 1000 Designs for lending the lamp for the pictures.
Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner Tossa Pendant Lamp
Materials: Crystal vetro doublé hand-blown white opal glass lampshade. Cross striped on the outside, white on the inside. Some metal parts. Metal E27 socket.
Cord Length: 100 cm / 39.37’’
Height: 49 cm / 19.29”
Width: ∅ 21 cm / 8.26”
Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 100 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
No specific type of light bulb is required; different types can be used. But a white, opaque or frosted one gives the most beautiful result.
Period: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.
Designer: Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner (1920-2003).
Manufacturer:Peill+Putzler, Düren, Germany.
Other versions: This Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner Tossa pendant lamp was made in several colours and designs. Some variations in height. These lamps are all hand-blown.
Vetro Doublé: an object made of two layers of glass normally of two different colours. In this case clear striped outside and white on the inside.
Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner
Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner (1920–2003) was a German glass and lighting designer from Reichenberg in the Bavarian Forest. He trained at the Staatliche Fachschule für Glasindustrie in Zwiesel and worked as a glass grinder at Riedlhütte, before developing a lifelong interest in the relationship between glass, form and light.
In 1952, Gangkofner began working at the Lamberts glass factory in Waldsassen, where he rediscovered and explored old glassmaking techniques. From 1953 he worked as a freelance designer for Peill+Putzler in Düren, creating a series of blown-glass lamps that helped define the company’s post-war lighting production. His designs often used double-layered glass, opal and clear glass effects, ribbed surfaces and subtle optical depth, combining artisanal glassmaking knowledge with serial production.
From 1959, Gangkofner also designed for ERCO Reininghaus & Co. in Lüdenscheid. At ERCO, a company specialised in modern lighting and plastic materials, his work took on a more geometric and restrained character. This makes his career especially interesting: for Peill+Putzler he developed expressive glass forms rooted in traditional glass craftsmanship, while for ERCO he explored a more modern, synthetic and architectural lighting language.
Alongside his industrial lighting designs, Gangkofner created large-scale glass and light installations, often using prisms, crystal elements and repeated glass forms. In 1954, his free-blown glass vessels were awarded a Gold Medal at the Milan Triennale. He also designed for Hessenglaswerke and worked on industrial glass projects, including collaborations connected with Corning in the United States.
Gangkofner taught for many years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. He became Honorary Professor in 1973, and in 1983 the independent Chair for Glass and Light was created there. He died in Munich in 2003.
Several of his mid-century lighting designs have been reissued by mawa design, including the renewed gangkofner edition launched in 2025.
Peill+Putzler
Glashüttenwerk Peill und Sohn was founded in 1903 in Düren, Germany. In 1947, after the Second World War, the company merged with Putzler, whose origins go back to 1869, and continued under the name Peill+Putzler Glashüttenwerke. Over the following decades, Peill+Putzler developed into one of Germany’s best-known producers of glass and lighting. In its peak years, the company employed up to 1,500 people and was one of the largest employers in Düren.
The company worked with important designers such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld, Wilhelm Braun-Feldweg, Helmut Demary, Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner, Horst Tüselmann, Dieter Sieger and others. Peill+Putzler became especially known for its high-quality glass production and for a wide range of modern lighting designs, many of which received iF Design Awards. Peill+Putzler received many design awards, not only for its lighting designs. Over the years, the company won 86 iF Design Awards.
Peill+Putzler also supplied glass components to other European lighting companies, including Raak, Philips, Müller & Zimmer and Van Doorn in the Netherlands, and Massive in Belgium. These lamps often combined Peill+Putzler glass with electrical parts made or specified by the companies under whose names they were sold.
In the mid-1990s, production was gradually moved from Düren to Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic. Only the trading of lamps and glass remained in Düren. Although the company was able to celebrate its 100th anniversary, insolvency proceedings followed in 2005.
For a number of years after that, the Peill+Putzler name continued to be used, including for Wagenfeld lighting marketed by the German company Paul Neuhaus. The former factory site in Düren, now known as Glashütte Düren, has since been converted into a multifunctional complex with various businesses and event spaces.
The Peill+Putzler name was revived again in recent years and is now used by Peill+Putzler Leuchten GmbH & Co. KG in Hemer, Germany. A new catalogue has been online since 2025, including reissues of some of the company’s best-known models, such as the Lido table lamp.
Vintageinfo
Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner Tossa Pendant Lamp – Company Labels & Logos
