A striking mid century Model FA1 floor lamp designed by Peter Nelson for Architectural Lighting Ltd, dating to approximately the 1960s.
Beautifully pared back in its construction, the lamp has a distinctly architectural feel, combining a slender metal stem with a substantial circular base and an aluminium cylindrical lamp head. The restrained all-metal finish gives the piece a wonderfully clean, almost industrial appearance typical of Nelson’s functional modernist approach to lighting.
The lamp head is mounted to the upright stem via an ingenious adjustable fitting, allowing its position and angle to be altered to direct the light where required. The cylindrical shade can be turned to create anything from a focused pool of light to atmospheric illumination across a wall, making the lamp particularly effective beside a chair, sofa or in a reading corner.
A square control unit positioned partway up the stem incorporates the light control, while the black flex is deliberately visible as part of the beautifully functional design.
The wide circular base provides stability without visually overpowering the exceptionally slender profile of the lamp, resulting in a piece that occupies very little physical space while creating a strong sculptural presence.
The lamp has been rewired, ready for continued use.
There are some light marks, scratches and signs of wear to the metalwork consistent with its age and use, all of which form part of the character of this original 1960s piece.
An increasingly sought-after example of post-war British lighting design, the FA1 combines Peter Nelson’s trademark simplicity and functionality with a beautifully considered, adjustable form.
£545.00
In stock
Architectural Lighting was founded in 1961 by Peter Nelson, an engineer who'd cut his teeth making cast aluminium aircraft models for the likes of BOAC and TWA. The company existed to produce his own lighting designs, and it shows — these are lamps built to engineering tolerances, not just styled to look modern.
Nearly everything was aluminium: spun shades, slender stems, and switch housings milled from the solid. The FA floor lamps and TA table range are the best known, sold through Habitat and Heal's in the sixties to a generation furnishing their first modern homes.
Production numbers were always modest, so original pieces don't turn up often. When they do, they tend to have survived well - good engineering ages gracefully. Every Architectural Lighting piece we sell is checked, rewired where needed, and ready to use.
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£24.95 tracked delivery within the UK
Delivered within 5 days (UK Mainland)
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We hope you'll love your purchase, but if for any reason you change your mind, you're welcome to return it.
Please contact us within 14 days of receiving your item to arrange a return. Items must be sent back in their original condition within 30 days of delivery. The buyer is responsible for return shipping costs.
Once we've received and checked the item, we'll issue a refund (excluding original delivery costs) via your original payment method.
If your item arrives damaged or there's an issue with your order, please get in touch within 48 hours of delivery.
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Peter Nelson (1928-2009) came to lighting the long way round. Born in Austria and educated in England, he spent the 1950s making cast aluminium model aircraft – precise, polished work that earned commissions from BOAC, Canadian Pacific and TWA. When he turned that same discipline to lamps, the results looked like nothing else on the British market.
He founded Architectural Lighting in 1961 to produce his own designs, almost all in aluminium. The FA and TA ranges are engineering as much as design: spun cylinder shades, slender stems, and his signature detail – a cube switch block milled from solid aluminium. Nothing decorative, nothing wasted.
By the mid-sixties his lamps were selling through Habitat and Heal’s, right at the heart of modern British taste. They were never made in huge numbers, which is why they’re so sought after now. A Nelson lamp is a proper piece of post-war British industrial design – built by a man who learned his trade making aeroplanes.
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