kaiser idell table lamp

bauhaus steel, high-gloss finish

Christian Dell designed the Kaiser Idell 6631 in 1931 while running the metal workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar. It entered the catalogue in 1936 as the Luxus — the undisputed top of the line. The name idell is a compression of idea and Dell. Nearly a century later, Fritz Hansen still makes it by hand in Denmark from solid steel and brass, each shade painted in high-gloss lacquer.

It is a lamp designed by someone who understood that a tool can also be a sculpture. The weighted dome, the patented swivel joint, the adjustable stem — every element has purpose, and every element also happens to be beautiful. It works as hard in a reading corner as it does as the first thing you notice when you walk into a room.

selected because it is the rare object that qualifies as both serious design history and a genuinely great lamp.