Paul Secon Nylon Thread Pendant Lamp

Materials: Nylon wire braided around geometric clear acrylic slats. Aluminium tube. Plastic canopy. Bakelite E27 socket.

Cord Length: 60 cm / 23.62’’

Height: 15 cm / 5.90”

Width: ∅ 53 cm / 20.86”

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: 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Paul Secon.

Manufacturer: Sompex GmbH & Co. KG, Werftstraße 20-22, 40549 Düsseldorf, Germany. Before: Sompex Licht und Form, Rolf O. Burghard KG.

Other versions: This Paul Secon nylon thread pendant lamp was made in many variations. All made of acrylic, sometimes coloured, and nylon fishing wire.

Some companies sold similar lamps in a DIY package. The nylon string and acrylic parts are together with the fitting and the cord in a box.

Sompex

Sompex was founded in 1948 by Rolf O. Burghard as the Soest Import en Export Company in Soest, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In 1950 they moved to Düsseldorf. Sompex was the exclusive importer of Scandinavian design and expanded rapidly.  Since the 1970s Sompex is focused on interior lighting. The company is a family business and it still exists. 

Sompex also sold lamps produced by Rotaflex. More info over here.

Paul Secon

No information can be found about a (lamp) designer. A Paul Secon exists (July 13, 1916 – February 24, 2007), but it was an American entrepreneur and song-writer who co-founded Pottery Barn with his brother, Morris, in 1950.

Naum Gabo

But is it really Paul Secon who designed these lamps? Naum Gabo, born Naum Neemia Pevsner, a Russian sculptor created the Plexima. His kinetic sculptures are a study of the movement of available light within a network of translucent webbing. These lamps are all made in this style. The Sompex company never answered several requests.

In a 1972 American Koch + Lowy catalogue is said: Plexima installation, designer: Joan Hilliers & Co. Next to a photo of 8 lamps hanging in cascade in a stairwell.

These lamps were also sold as a kit to make them yourself by some companies, but they look different, as you can see in this America advertisement. 

Acrylic: often named by its commercial name: Perspex, Plexiglas, Crylux, Acrylite, Lucite, is a thermoplastic.