ERCO Aluminium Counterweight Pendant Lamp

Materials: Round & conical mat aluminium lampshade. Rubber joint, aluminium cone. Round white plastic grid. Copper coloured tube counterweight. Some metal and plastic parts. Bakelite E27 lamp socket.

Cord Length: 120 cm / 47.24” – adjustable

Height: 25 cm / 9.84”

Width: ∅ 45 cm / 17.71”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 75 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.

Period: 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner (1920-2003) around 1962.

Manufacturer: ERCO GmbH, Lüdenscheid, Germany – attributed.

Other versions: This ERCO aluminium counterweight pendant lamp exists in several colours and was also sold without the counterweight. This one is model 1090. Model 1091 is in brass and model 1092 is in copper colour. The model without the counterweight are models 2300, 2301 (brass), 2302 (copper). As you can see in the catalogue picture.

Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner

Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner was born in Reichenberg, Germany in 1920. He studied at the Staatliche Fachschule für Glasindustrie (State Technical College for the Glass Industry) in Zwiesel from 1934 until 1935. He worked as a freelancer for Peill + Putzler from 1953 until 1958. Several of his designs were also sold by Raak Amsterdam, always produced by Peill + Putzler.

Later he started to work as an independent for, among others, the ERCO lighting company, also from Germany. Gangkofner also designed lamps in the 1960s for Reininghaus & Co from Lüdenscheid, Germany which won several iFdesign awards. He died in Munich (München), Germany in 2003.

ERCO

ERCO was founded in 1934 by Arnold Reininger (1907-2003), Karl Reeber and Paul Buschhaus in Lüdenscheid, Germany. The company name ERCO represents a phonetic abbreviation of the founding name “Reininghaus & Co.“.

The company is still in family ownership. During the early years, ERCO produced parts for lamps. In particular a spring-supported retracting mechanism for hanging lights.

In the 1930s the industrial production of complete luminaires was started. After World War II Arnold Reininger and Karl Reeber continued the company. Co-founder Paul Buschhaus had died in the war.

Famous designers that worked for the ERCO company are Alois Ferdinand Gangkofner, Roger Tallon, Ettore Sottsass. Emilio Ambasz, Shiro Kuramata, Giancarlo Piretti, Dieter Witte. Yves Béhar, Knud Holscher, Franco Clivio, Naoto Fukasawa and many others.

The company was awarded many times thanks to these great artists and the vision of the ERCO company. ERCO received 88 iF Design Awards. 

ERCO aluminium counterweight pendant lamp – 1976 catalogue picture