Louis Poulsen 50th Anniversary Editions.

Last year, Louis Poulsen released two 50th anniversary editions of their most iconic lamps, PH5 and PH Artichoke. As many have already known, the initials before the names of the lamps represent the designer. Eg. with the PH refers to Poul Henningsen and AJ refers to Arne Jacobsen.

Poul Henningsen was trained as an architect between 1911 and 1917 but he did not graduate. Instead he tried to be a painter and inventor. In 1958, he designed the PH lamps, of which the PH5 was the most popular. I met a couple of Danish folks and they tell me it is almost as though every other Danish home had a PH lamp in the 70s. For that same reason, it was not hard getting two pre-loved PH 5 pieces for my own home imported from Denmark. The simple lamp had a red and blue light filters so that the colour of the light would be soft and the concentric design eliminated visual glare. The 50th Anniversary editions are aptly named PH50. They come in 5 different colours to update the already modern looking lamp. The finishes are glossy giving them a wet look.

The PH Artichoke lamp is definitely one of the first lamps that drew me to lighting fixtures as an art piece. I love how the 72 pieces of leaves are put together without screws in a geometric fashion. The leaves are designed to reflect light and eliminate glare. It's original Danish name is PH Kogle which meant conifer cone, which was what Poul Henningsen took inspiration from. For the 50th anniversary, a sand blasted glass version was created. Unfortunately it came only in its smallest size. Out of curiosity, I decided to make a trip to Space Furniture to see it in flesh, bask in its beauty and also have a peek at its price. It's a king's ransom, ouch!

Poul Henningsen.

PH Artichoke Lamp, 50th Anniversary.

PH50, in 4 of the 5 colours. The 5th colour is just a high gloss white.