Design: Peter Avondoglio
Maker: Fog & Mørup
Navn: "Contact"
Type: Wall or table
Danish Quality: Made in Denmark
1 UNITS - Yes, 1 Lamp !! The Shipping is the only thing that raises the price.
When Peter Avondoglio, a resident U.S.-born architect at the Academy of Art & Design in Copenhagen, designed this wall lamp, he thought of a lacquered aluminium body in bright colours (white, red, yellow or black) with a pushbutton made of mat aluminium. The switch, as well as the build-in screening which can be turned to one side or the other, is operated by the press-button. In those years of the 1970's Fog & Mørup expanded to Germany, Italy, and the other Common Market countries, mantaining its position in Scandinavia and the United States and licensing their manufacture at Yamagiwa, Japan. New ideas with the latest technological aids as the 'contact' lamp tuned into the requirements of modern living, creating the right atmosphere wherever people meet. That made Fog & Mørup into a success in the 1970's. The socket is original bakelite for 40 watts max. The Lamp can be used in 220V and 110 V countries with the light bulb provided by the seller.
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.