Pendant Lamp by Bent Nordsted for Lyskær Belysning — Denmark, Early 1970s

A superb and virtually unused pendant lamp designed by Bent Nordsted and manufactured by the Danish lighting company Lyskær Belysning in the early 1970s. The lamp retains its original retailer’s tag from Wilko B.V., Rozenstraat 45, Amsterdam — confirming it was sold through one of the Netherlands’ leading mid-century lighting retailers — and can genuinely be considered new old stock, having apparently never been installed or used in the decades since it left the shop floor.

The form is a confident exercise in Space Age design: two broad, flat disc-shaped shades in brushed steel — one upper, one lower — sandwich a compact, highly polished chrome mid-section with a distinctly sculptural, lathe-turned quality. The underside of the lower shade is lacquered white to diffuse light downward evenly, while the inner faces of the central rings are finished in a soft purple lacquer. When lit, this produces a quietly spectacular effect — the brushed steel takes on a warm violet glow, giving the lamp a character quite different from its cool, industrial appearance when off.

Bent Nordsted was a Danish designer who worked extensively with Lyskær Belysning during the late 1960s and early 1970s, producing a body of work that placed him firmly within the Scandinavian Space Age lighting tradition. Lyskær Belysning was a Danish manufacturer known for well-engineered, design-forward pendant lamps that often drew on the legacy of Poul Henningsen’s multi-shade approach to glare-free illumination, adapting it for a more overtly modern, metallic aesthetic.

Wilko B.V., based on the Rozenstraat in Amsterdam, was a respected Dutch lighting retailer active during the 1960s and 1970s that stocked a carefully curated selection of Scandinavian and European designer lighting brands — the kind of shop where this lamp would have sat alongside work by Louis Poulsen and other leading names of the period. The survival of the original Wilko tag is a pleasing detail that adds both provenance and a tangible connection to the lamp’s retail history.

The lamp is in exceptional condition. A few faint surface marks are visible on the top of the upper shade — consistent with careful storage rather than use — but there are no dents, no rust, and no damage of any kind. E27 bulb.