Rare Polo Popular Table Lamp by Christian Dell for Bünte & Remmler, produced in Germany in the 1930’s.

This particular model is in good original condition maintaining original patina & traces of use from use in an industrial setting.

It is fully functional, moves and adjusts as it should and has recently been rewired for use in the U.K. with modern components.

Stamped POLO-POPULAR 2608 on the base.

Takes a B22 bulb.

Height 40cm

Shade Diameter 14cm

Base Diameter 17cm

Industrial designer, silversmith, and teacher Christian Dell was born in 1893 in Offenbach, Germany. While information on Dell is limited, multiple sources note he apprenticed as a silversmith in Hanau prior to studying at the Weimar School of Applied Art. Between 1922 and 1925, Dell served as master of the metal workshop at the Bauhaus in Weimar; he is credited with playing a formative role in shaping the Bauhaus’s metalworking curriculum. During this time, he also designed crafted tableware in copper and silver.

In 1926, after the Weimar Bauhaus closed, Dell was appointed director of the then-new metalwork course at the Frankfurt School of Art, where he remained until 1933—at which time the Nazis dismissed him. While in Frankfurt, in addition to teaching and working as a silversmith, Dell began his career as a lighting designer. Standout designs from this period include the Rondella (1927-28) and Polo Populär (1929) desk lights; both were initially manufactured by the Rondella factory at Oberursel and later by Bünte & Remmler in Frankfurt. Other noteworthy pieces include the Dell-lamp type K (1930) as well as the Kaiser idell range (1930s), the latter of which appeared for the first time in catalogue in 1936 and was produced by the company Gebr. Kaiser & Co in Neheim-Hüsten. (Notably, many of Dell’s lighting designs incorporated his own name into their titles.)