Modern Icon: Serge Mouille Arm Lamps
Midcentury French design endures in sconce, chandelier and floor lamp styles that look right at home today
If you should happen upon a rare original lamp made by Serge Mouille, guard it with your life — it could yield a six-figure payout from a collector. Mouille, a French artisan, carefully crafted each of the original midcentury modern lamps himself and considered them to be works of art. In fact, actor Henry Fonda was so taken with Mouille's work that he camped out on the steps of Mouille's studio, hoping the lamp maker would meet with him and find time in his busy schedule to make Fonda a special lamp.
A little background on what led Serge Mouille to the light: Born in 1922, he began his career as a silversmith at just 15 years old. In 1953, a client tasked him with creating a large lamp for a large room, one that did not have all the busyness of Italian lamps on the market at the time. In response, Mouille designed and built his first lamp, an austere standing floor lamp with three arms. Currently, designers covet the floor lamps, sconces and ceiling light reproductions available on the market. Decide if you'll want to add them to your home decor wish list.
A little background on what led Serge Mouille to the light: Born in 1922, he began his career as a silversmith at just 15 years old. In 1953, a client tasked him with creating a large lamp for a large room, one that did not have all the busyness of Italian lamps on the market at the time. In response, Mouille designed and built his first lamp, an austere standing floor lamp with three arms. Currently, designers covet the floor lamps, sconces and ceiling light reproductions available on the market. Decide if you'll want to add them to your home decor wish list.
Modern
Mouille lamps were shown in the Steph Simon Gallery in Paris from 1956 on, alongside the works of Charlotte Perriand, Isamu Noguchi and Jean Prouvé, so it's only appropriate that they are shown here alongside the LC3 armchairs that Perriand designed with Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret. Take away a piece or two and you wouldn't be able to tell if this was a modern-day set for a product shot or a chic 1950s Parisian salon.
In the design of all the arm lamps, each arm is topped with an aluminum "nipple" shade. These shades gave each lamp head maximum reflection for casting light, hide wiring in the back and are a major component of lots of variations on the original design.
... perhaps even in a super-chic bathroom.
Side note: You don't find an armchair and a reading lamp in a bathroom every day, but wouldn't it be great to have someone read celebrity memoirs to you while you took a bubble bath? Right now, I'll admit, I am reading Most Talkative by Andy Cohen. It would be nice if the pages didn't have wet fingerprints.
Side note: You don't find an armchair and a reading lamp in a bathroom every day, but wouldn't it be great to have someone read celebrity memoirs to you while you took a bubble bath? Right now, I'll admit, I am reading Most Talkative by Andy Cohen. It would be nice if the pages didn't have wet fingerprints.
Serge Mouille 5-Arm Spider Ceiling Lamp
This is the dynamic 5-Arm Spider Ceiling Lamp. You can move the arms and shades around to change the shape and direct the light. It also comes with three, six or seven arms. Oddly, despite its name, there is not an eight-armed version.
In addition to providing reading light, these single-arm sconces double as artful sculptures.
The angled arms play off the diagonals on these beams, while their black color contrasts with the white paint.
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Modern Icons: PH Lights
More:
Saving Space Stylishly With Swing-Arm Lamps
Modern Icons: PH Lights