Mategot Holophane pendant ceiling light 1950 metal glass mid-century retro 50s B

A vintage Holophane ceiling light designed by Mathieu Matégot for the Holophane lighting company in 1950.  With a cream metal stalk and opaque glass dome, we have pictured it with a traditional crown bulb which directs the light up and through the holes in the stem which gives a beautiful effect.  As with all Holophane glass, the heavy glass bottom has been designed to refract the light.   We have fully cleaned and restored this light and added new 3-core wiring.  It's a heavy piece, so will need a hook in the ceiling.  We also have a second identical light, see final picture, available on a separate listing.  This is listing is for one of these lights only, not the pair.

Measures approx 64cm high and 36cm maximum width.

Mathie Matégot (1910-2001) was a prominent and versatile Hungarian-French designer working in France in the 1950s.  His other work included furniture design, theatrical sets, fashion and tapestries.   From his time as a prisoner of war in the 1940s, where he was put to work in a metal-working factory, he pioneered the use of steel tubing and perforated metal in furniture design, as can be seen in this iconic and very 1950s ceiling light. 

The Holophane company began life in France in 1893 when Otis Mygatt discovered that placing optically engineered prisms of glass next to each other refracted light more strongly and efficiently.  The effect is also very beautiful, and some wonderful pieces of lighting were created during the very earliest years of electricity.  Lights such as this were often used in banks, stations and public buildings, and later were developed for home use when domestic houses begin to be electrified more widely during the 1920s and 30s.  The Holophane patent was bought in the UK in 1896 when manufacturing began here, and a factory was also quickly established in the US.  The company is still at the forefront of lighting technology.