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Staff Pendant Lamp 5515
Materials: Round white painted aluminium lampshade. Aluminium reflector. Some metal parts. Conical black plastic canopy. Metal & porcelain E27 socket.
Cord Length: 100 cm / 39.37’’
Height: 25 cm / 9.84”
Width: ∅ 45 cm / 17.71”
Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 150 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Anytypeof light bulbcanbeused, not a specific one preferred.
Period: 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.
Designer: To be discussed…
Manufacturer:Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerke GMBH, Lemgo, Germany.
Other versions: This Staff pendant lamp 5515 exists in several colours and sizes.
These pendant lamp series received an iF Design Award in 1975 and in 1976. The lamps from 1975 (models: 5514, 4415, 5516) are a design of Gerhard Beigel & Hans Schäfer, but the one from 1976 is a design of Alfred Kalthof, according to the iF Design Award website. It is unclear if it is a mistake, but the one from 1976 (model 5596) has the same elongated slots on top as with this one. You don’t see it in the photo of the 1975 lamp.
Alfred Kalthoff, Gerhard Beigel, Hans Schäfer
Unfortunately, no information can be found about Alfred Kalthoff, Hans Schäfer and Gerhard Beigel. They designed several awarded lamps for the Staff company. The 3 designers worked together on several lamp designs. Gerhard Beigel also designed lamps for Peil + Putzler.
Staff
Staff Leuchten – Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerke (lighting plant) was founded in 1945 in Lemgo, (West) Germany by Alfred Staff (1908–1989) and Otto Schwarz (1902–1951). After the war they left the Soviet occupation zone and set up a small three-man business in Lemgo producing consumer goods in wood and metal, repair work and pesticide against the Colorado potato beetle. The location in Westphalia-Lippe was chosen deliberately: the area already had veneer and lighting manufacturers, which made it a natural base for a new lighting company.
In 1946 Staff produced its first wrought-iron lamps, followed by large orders for spa complexes in the region. After the death of Otto Schwarz in 1951,Alfred Staff took over all shares and shifted the focus from project lighting to serial production of innovative, design-oriented luminaires.
From the late 1950s onwards the company became one of Germany’s most decorated lighting manufacturers. Staff was among the first winners of the “Gute Industrieform” (today iF Design) awards at the Hanover Fair, and over the next three decades collected more than 200 design prizes. In the 1960s the firm built up an international sales network, introduced the Variolux electronic dimmer (1966) and launched Lite-Trac (1967), one of the first VDE-compliant track lighting systems, which helped to position Staff as a pioneer in architectural and technical lighting.
Staff collaborated with numerous designers, including Rolf Krüger, Motoko Ishii, Kazuo Motozawa, Arnold Berges, Gerhard Beigel, Alfred Kalthoff and others. Several Japanese designs originally created for Yamagiwa – such as Motozawa’s Saturno series – were marketed in Europe by Staff, while some Staff models were licensed to other brands. In the 1970s the company published a joint catalogue with Stilnovo, and lamps from Staff appeared in catalogues from Raak, the Netherlands, and the Danish Lyfa, among others.
In the early 1990s the Austrian Zumtobel Group gradually acquired the company: in 1993 it took a majority stake, and by 1994 owned 100% of the shares. The lighting activities were continued under the brand Zumtobel Staff, with the Staff name remaining in use until 2006. The Lemgo factory is still one of Zumtobel’s key production sites for spotlights and lighting systems.
Links (external links open in a new window)
Staff and Zumtobel history – company website
Gerhard Beigel & Hans Schäfer pendant lamp on the iF Design Award website
Many thanks to Frank from nullviernull raum+kommunikation for the pictures. You can find his shop over here on Pamono.
