Robert Dudley Best was heir to his family's factory Best & Lloyd, the largest lighting manufacturing company in the world in the early 1900s. A student of design, Best was educated in Paris and D¸sseldorf and while in Germany he made friends with Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus movement. The two friends shared similar ideas about functionality and simplicity, and Best returned to England with a sketch of his Bestlite (1930), determined to put it into production. His family, however, had different ideas about adding this "modern" lamp to its traditional collection. When Best was finally permitted a trial production period for his lamp, he discovered that demand for this functional design didn't come from residential clients as he'd expected, but rather from commercial clients like automotive mechanics and the Royal Air Force. The Bestlite was also favored by architects, which prompted the Architects Journal to declare Bestlite the "first manifestation of British Bauhaus design." Public demand soon followed, and records indicate that Winston Churchill even took his Bestlite with him when he traveled. Bestlite is included in the permanent collections of the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Design Museum in London. Bulb (not included): incandescent 40W/E12. Made in Denmark. This Wall Pendant has a swiveling shade.