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The complete history of the Philips company
Gebrauchsmuster – Wikipedia (in German)
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Double Spotlight Ceiling Lamp
Materials: White painted metal (iron) square tube or beam lampshades. Black plastic parts. Chromed metal rod. White painted square metal ceiling mount. Porcelain E27 sockets.
Height: 50 cm / 19.68”
Lampshades: 16,8 x 7,3 cm / 6.61 x 2.87”
Ceiling Mount: 9 x 9 cm / 3.54 x 3.54′‘
Electricity: 2 bulbs E27, 2 x 100 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.
Period: 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.
Designer: To be appraised.
Manufacturer: Philips, Eindhoven, The Netherlands – Turnhout, Belgium.
Other versions: This double spotlight ceiling lamp exists in several colours and was produced with 1, 2 or 3 lamps. Also made as a wall lamp and floor lamp.
The plastic mechanism with screws to adjust the spotlights for this lamp were made in Germany. On the plastic screws is written/pressed DBGM. DBGM is not some type of company, but it is German for utility model, “gebrauchsmuster ” in German. Only used in Germany and Austria: D eutsches B undes-G ebrauchsm uster. To say it simple, the plastic mechanism is licensed for some period, most of the time 10 years: the small brother of a patent.
Koninklijke Philips N.V.
Inspired by the fast-growing electricity industry and by the promising results of Gerard Philips’ own experiments with reliable carbon filaments, his father, the Jewish banker Frederik Philips from Zaltbommel, financed the purchase of a small factory in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, on 15 May 1891.
The first years were difficult and the company was close to bankruptcy, but in 1895 Gerard’s younger brother Anton Philips joined the firm. With Anton’s commercial drive the family business expanded very quickly and the Philips brothers turned the lamp factory into the basis of what would become a major international electronics company.
To secure the supply of lamp parts, Philips very early started to make things in-house: its own machines, its own glass (from 1916) and even its own gas separation to fill lamps with argon, so it was less dependent on German suppliers during wartime. This strong vertical integration became typical for Philips and later also supported radio and medical products.
From the 1920s onward Philips did not only make lamps but also radios and even ran its own shortwave stations (PCJ and PHOHI) to promote them worldwide – an early mix of product and broadcasting.
In later sources the “first Philips shaver” is sometimes put in the early 1930s, but Philips itself dates the electric Philishave to 1939; in any case it shows how the company moved from lighting into small household and personal devices.
On 9 May 1940, the day before the German invasion, the Philips family left for the United States with a large part of the company’s capital. From there they continued operations as the North American Philips Company and kept control over the group during the war. After 1945 the headquarters returned to the Netherlands, again in Eindhoven.
After the war Philips became a broad technology group: radios, televisions, X-ray and medical equipment, and of course lighting, which remained one of its core businesses for decades. Only much later, in 2016, the lighting activities were split off and continued under the name Signify – all vintage Philips luminaires on this site belong to the period when lighting was still an integral part of Philips.
Today Philips is mainly a health-technology company. The roots are still in Eindhoven, but since 2025 the head office is in Amsterdam (Prinses Irenestraat 59).
