Louis Poulsen 🇩🇰 PH SEPTIMA Pendant Lamp

PH SEPTIMA Louis Poulsen – Poul Henningsen, 1928

The PH Septima is regarded as one of Poul Henningsen’s most refined pendants. When exhibited for the first time as a prototype at the Danish Museum of Decorative Art (now Designmuseum Danmark) in 1928, the poetic piece was publically applauded.

Based on the PH three-shade system, the glass crown has four extra shades inserted between the three basic shades - all seven produced in very delicate, but also strong, Italian borosilicate glass.

The shades made of clear glass are treated to appear with alternate clear and frosted fields and are positioned so the frosted fields cover the clear fields underneath, allowing the shades to spread the light in a more diffused manner, while maintaining glare-free, downward directed light distribution. In addition, a neat round glass cup is placed at the top in order to prevent dust from falling into the lamp.

In 1931, a smaller PH Septima 4 was launched based on shade sizes from the PH 4/4 lamp, where the original PH Septima 5 is based on shade sizes from the PH 5/5. During the development of the PH Septima, Henningsen designed a metal version as well, but it never reached production. The drawings however formed the basis for the development of the PH Artichoke, designed around three decades later for the Langelinie Pavilion in Copenhagen.

In the 40s, however, the esteemed PH Septima went out of production together with numerous other lamps at the time, due to the shortage of raw materials. In 2020, Louis Poulsen brings back Poul Henningsen’s sophisticated seven-shade glass crown, based on the PH Septima 5 with optimized suspension and enhanced glass for better endurance and stability.

PH Septima

Shades Clear glass with sandblasted fields.

Legs Steel, brass metallised.

Socket housing and canopy Satin polished brass, untreated. Please note that the untreated brass will change over time and develop a patina.

Cord length 3 m, White fabric w/wire.

Light source 1 x E27

Dimension Ø50 x H40,5 cm

Poul Henningsen

Born in Copenhagen, Poul Henningsen's mother was the famous Danish actress Agnes Henningsen. He never qualified as an architect, but studied at the Technical School in Frederiksberg (Denmark) from 1911 to 1914, and then at the Technical College in Copenhagen (1914-1917).

He started out practising traditional functionalist architecture, but over the years his professional interests evolved to focus mainly on lighting, which is what he is most famous for. He also branched out into writing, becoming a journalist and author. For a brief period at the start of the Second World War, he was chief architect of Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. But like many other creative people, he was forced to flee Denmark during the German occupation, and soon became a vital part of the Danish colony of artists living in Sweden.

His long collaboration with Louis Poulsen began in 1925 and lasted until his death. To this day, Louis Poulsen still benefits from his genius. Poul Henningsen was also the first editor-in-chief of the business magazine "NYT". Louis Poulsen's CEO at the time, Sophus Kaastrup-Olsen, offered PH the magazine because he had been sacked from the Danish newspaper he was working for (his views were too radical).

Poul Henningsen's pioneering work on the relationship between light structures, shadows, glare and colour reproduction, compared with man's need for light, remains the foundation of the lighting theories still practised by Louis Poulsen.