Staff Chrome Tube Flush Mount

Materials: Chromed metal (iron) tube. Square chrome base. Black painted square metal ceiling mount. Metal and porcelain E27 socket.

Height: 20 cm / 7.87” (without bulb)

Width: 10,5 cm x 10,5 cm / 4.13” x 4.13”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 100 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used. For this setup a silver tipped globe light bulb was used.

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

Designer: Rolf Krüger in 1967.

Manufacturer: Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerke GMBH, Lemgo, Germany.

Model number: A248.

Other versions: This Staff chrome tube flush mount exists in 3 different sizes and was also made in white and was produced in several variations, as you can see. It also exists with a round base. They are intended as flush mount or wall lamp.

Often said that this lamp is a design of the Japanese lighting designer Motoko Ishii, but it is not. These lamps are a design of Rolf Krüger, well known for his Cross Oyster wall lamp he designed for Staff. You can find it over here. Rolf Krüger designed several other beautiful lamps for the company.

These lamps were awarded in 1967, but the table lamp with a cap received an iF Design Award in 1968.  

Also BAG Turgi sold these lamps, together with several other Staff lamps. It appears in their 1971 catalogue.

Rolf Krüger

Rolf Krüger is a graduate designer. From 1959 until 1960 he studied free and applied art at the Heinrich Zernack School in Berlin. In the period 1960-1964 Krüger went to the Meisterschule für das Kunsthandwerk (master school for the arts and crafts), the Staatliche Werkkunstschule, today named UdK, were he studied graphic and product design.

From 1965 until 1982 he was executive officer in the product and fair design in the field of home lighting.

Since 1983 Rolf Krüger is a freelancer in product design in glass, metal, plastic, concrete and large-scale murals.

Staff 

Staff Leuchten – Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerk (lighting plant) – was established by Alfred Staff and Otto Schwarz in Lemgo, (West) Germany in 1945.

Their business started as a shop for consumer goods in wood and metal as well as pesticide for controlling the Colorado potato beetle, a huge problem at that time.

Within a year they the company expanded with 15 employees and they produced the first wrought iron luminaires. Over the next three decades, Staff was to develop into a world leader in design excellence, receiving over 200 awards for their achievements.

Staff also collaborated with the Italian company Stilnovo. They published a joint catalogue in the 1970s. The Dutch Raak and the Danish Lyfa sold several lamps in the 60s and 70s. Several other companies did.

In 1994 Zumtobel bought the company.