PH Axe Table, natural oak legs, veneer table plate, yellow PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Wood, Oak
PH Axe Table, natural oak legs, veneer table plate, green PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Wood, Oak
PH Axe Table, black oak legs, veneer table plate, Yellow PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Wood, Oak
PH Axe Table, black oak legs, veneer table plate, white PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Wood, Oak
PH Axe Table, black oak legs, laminated plate, green PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, Natural Oak Legs, Laminated Plate, Yellow PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ table lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, natural oak legs, laminated plate, white PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, Natural Oak Legs, Laminated Plate, Red PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ table lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, natural oak legs, laminated plate, green PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, Black Oak Legs, Laminated Plate, Yellow PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, Black Oak Legs, Laminated Plate, Red PH 3 ½-2 ½ Lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½-2 ½ table lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is hid...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, Black Oak Legs, Laminated Plate, White PH
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ table lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Laminate, Oak
PH Axe Table, natural oak legs, laminated plate, without lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Oak, Laminate
PH Axe Table, Black Oak Legs, Laminated Plate, Without Lamp
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ table lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Oak, Laminate
PH Axe Table, Natural Oak Legs, Veneer Table Plate with Veneered Edge
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Oak, Wood
PH Axe Table, Black Oak Wood Legs, Black Oak Veneer Table Plate and Edge
By Poul Henningsen
Located in Copenhagen, DK
Upon removing the wood cover, PH 3 ½ - 2 ½ Table Lamp in a special construction with cable outlet below the frame can be installed and plugged in to the pre-installed cable that is h...
Wood, Oak
Poul Henningsen 2/2 1930s pendant
Located in Egå, DK
Poul Henningsen PH-2/2 Table Lamp – Louis Poulsen Rare Poul Henningsen PH-2/2 lamp, stamped “PATENTED PH-2”, produced by Louis Poulsen.
Copper
The name Poul Henningsen is synonymous with the best and most innovative modern Scandinavian lamps and other lighting. The Danish designer created a signature vocabulary of fixtures with tiered and layered shades in sculptural arrangements that are at once naturalistic and geometric.
Henningsen grew up in a town on the outskirts of Copenhagen and studied architecture at the Technical University of Denmark. He would become a noted art critic, journalist and screenwriter, but his first love was lighting design.
Henningsen’s childhood home was illuminated by oil lamps. When his family switched to electrified lighting, he was alarmed and repelled by the harsh glare cast by an incandescent bulb, and in his late teens he began conducting quasi-scientific experiments to measure which materials and methods best diffused or reflected light to give it a warm brightness. His work came to the attention of the lighting-fixtures firm Louis Poulsen, which sponsored the development of a prototype lamp. The design won a gold medal at the 1925 Paris Expositions Internationales des Arts Decóratifs et Industriels Modernes — from which the term Art Deco derives. The lamp, whose three-part shade is said to be inspired by the arrangement of a dinner plate atop a soup bowl atop a teacup, became the basis for Henningsen’s most successful design, the PH 4/3 desk lamp.
All told, Henningsen would design some 100 lighting fixtures in his career. Some of his most notable creations are hanging lamps, which include the Septima (1929), a pendant composed of seven graduated frosted-glass layers; the Spiral (1942), made of a single ribbon of enameled aluminum; and the Artichoke lamp (1958), whose 70 glass or metal fins in a staggered and graduated arrangement on a central steel frame resemble those of its namesake. The last is likely Henningsen’s masterwork and an icon of mid-20th-century design. Like all Henningsen lighting designs, it is striking, sculptural and — thanks to his insistence on the primacy of the quality of the light cast — superbly functional.
Find a collection of authentic Poul Henningsen table lamps, floor lamps and other lighting on 1stDibs.
Antique table lamps became a category of their own once electricity moved light off the wall and onto furniture. The form split quickly: task-driven designs like the Anglepoise on one side, decorative ceramic and glass on the other.
Styles to Know
Base material shapes the light as much as the shade does: ceramic and glass diffuse a softer glow, while brass and metal read more directional. Layer the look with a mid-century modern floor lamp for ambient light, or set a pair on a mid-century modern nightstand for a bedroom.
How to Choose the Right Vintage Table Lamp
Buying individually rather than as a pair allows more flexibility when mixing eras across a room. For those shopping by name rather than by shape, the history of the Anglepoise lamp is worth a read. Each piece comes from a vetted 1stDibs seller, with era, designer and condition detailed, and the 1stDibs Promise stands behind every purchase.