The History of FOG & MøRUP---->  Ansgar Fog and E Mørup met in 1902 at the firm of Marinus Kock in Aarhus, Denmark. They rapidly became firm friends and began to develop the idea of going into business together. On 22 February 1904 they answered an advertisement in the newspaper Jyllandsposten calling for 'an energetic man to take over a well-established ironmongery and consignment warehouse'. The warehouse contents encompassed paraffin lamps, gas lamps, gas pipes, hosepipes, pumps, glasscutters and 'other marketable and profitable wares'. The pair borrowed the asking price of 3,000 Danish kroner and started business as 'agents and wholesalers' on 1 July 1904 in three small rooms with cellars in Fiskergyde in Aarhus. Both Fog and Mørup were then 24 years old.

In 1906 Fog & Mørup moved to Copenhagen and began to specialise in lighting, taking over electrical dealership Dahls Brothers in 1913, and on 1 April 1915 they opened their first lighting factory at Nørregade 7. Rapid expansion of the company over the following two decades, together with the takeover of several other lighting companies, meant that the factory was moved to larger premises more than once, and the Nørregade premises became the company's showroom.

It was in the early 1960s that Fog & Morup really emerged as a significant force in lighting design, when the company began what was to prove a long and productive relationship with Jo Hammerborg. Hammerborg's sleek and innovative modernist designs (see examples right and above) became the trademark style of Fog & Morup throughout the 60s and into the 70s, and propelled the company into the forefront of Danish modern lighting.

By the early 1970s Fog & Mørup had reached its prime, with sales in 1972 in excess of 50 million Danish kroner and an export market growing at 30 per cent per annum. The company's belief that, 'presented with a challenge, designers as individuals or in design groups will achieve their finest work' enabled them to attract many talented architects and designers including Hammerborg, Sophus Frandsen, Johannes Exner, Claus Bonderup and Torsten Thorup, Jørgen Bo, Karen and Ebbe Clemmensen, Mogens Voltelen, Henning Larsen, Andreas Hansen, Børge Rameskov, Hans Due and Peter Avondoglio.

Perhaps the most widely recognised of Fog & Morup's lights today is the iconic Semi (above left), designed in 1967 by Bonderup and Thorup, but the company also produced many other innovative, important and award-winning lights including Due's Optima (bottom right), as well as collaborating with other manufacturers such as Holmegaard, Royal Copenhagen and Kaj Franck's Arabia (right).

Fog and Mørup maintained their predominant position throughout the 1970s, during which decade they merged with another leading design-oriented Danish lighting company, Lyfa. Although the companies now shared factory premises at Ballerup, the two distinct brands were maintained, and their distinctness was emphasised through careful brand differentiation. Lyfa was now pitched at the more mature design-conscious buyer while Fog & Mørup wholeheartedly embraced the younger market with a move into bright colours and stylish pop-art designs (right and above left). Indeed, the two companies occasionally issued lights that were identical in design but were produced in shiny primary colours for Fog & Morup and more sober metallic finishes under the Lyfa branding. Both companies were subsequently incorporated into Horn Belysning A/S of Aalstrup, and the Lyfa and Fog & Mørup brands were abandoned.