Louis Poulsen PH 5 Table Lamp

Materials: Round chrome base & rods. Layered aluminium mushroom lampshade. Round chrome lid on top. Some metal & chrome parts. Bakelite E27 socket.

Height: 60,5 cm / 23.81”

Width: ∅ 45 cm / 17.71”

Base: ∅ 21,5 cm / 8.46”

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.

Period: 1950s, 1960s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Poul Henningsen around 1957.

Manufacturer: Louis Poulsen & Co A/S, Copenhagen, Denmark.

Other versions: This Louis Poulsen PH 5 table lamp exists in several colours. It was also made in a brass version.

Poul Henningsen

Poul Henningsen was born on 9 September 1894 in Copenhagen. He studied at The Technical School at Frederiksberg, Denmark from 1911 until 1914, and then at Technical College in Copenhagen until 1917.

He devoted much of his life to exploring the importance of light for well-being and focused on creating lamps that produced glare-free illumination.

His self-titled PH series was his most famous collection. Often said he was the first real lighting architect. His best-known lamp models are the PH Artichoke and the PH 5.

He was a very versatile man; during the 1920s Poul Henningsen had his literary breakthrough and was politically committed to the left wing. At the same time he began as a revue writer, the so-called PH-revues from 1929 until 1932.

In 1931 he designed the PH Grand Piano, one of the most beautiful wing piano’s ever made.

Before the Second World War he took part of the anti-fascist propaganda, always trying to connect culture and politics. During the war he kept a lower profile and fled to Sweden but tried to keep the spirit going by camouflaged resistance poetry.

After the war he dissociated himself from the communists who were criticising him for his growing scepticism about the Soviet Union. In his last years in the 1960s he became a member of the Danish Academy. Poul Henningsen died on 31 January 1967 at the age of 73.

Louis Poulsen

Louis Poulsen & CO A/S is a Danish lighting manufacturer that was founded in 1874 by Ludvig R. Poulsen as a wine importing business. 4 years later the firm closed down. However, in 1892 Ludvig Poulsen opened his second business, this time selling tools and electrical supplies.

Two years later in 1896 his nephew Louis Poulsen started to work for the company. After the dead of Ludvig in 1906, Louis takes over the business.
In 1911 Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen becomes a partner in the firm and the name changes in Louis Poulsen & Co A/S. Six years later Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen becomes the sole owner of the company.

The best known designers that worked for Louis Poulsen are Poul Henningsen, Arne Jacobsen, Verner Panton, Vilhelm Lauritzen, Shoichi Uchiyama and many others.