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Bestlite has been in continuous production since 1930. Winston Churchill is numbered amongst its many famous users.
"Designed by the British designer Robert Dudley Best in 1930, the Bestlite BL5 Wall Lamp exudes simplicity and clean shapes in line with the school from Bauhaus, which the designer was highly influenced by. With its adjustable arm, both horizontal and vertical, and movable shade, the Bestlite BL5 Wall Lamp suits well by the desk, as a bedside lamp or in the kitchen where the light needs to be directed.
The Bestlite lamp design was first adopted by garages and the Royal Air Force engineering departments due to its great functionality. A feature in Architects Journal lauding Bestlite with the title of the first evidence of Bauhaus in Britain brought the lamp to the attention of the design conscious. Public demand for the Bestlite lamps soon followed and, when Winston Churchill personally chose the Bestlite BL1 Table Lamp for his desk, Bestlite's iconic status was secured.
The Bestlite design stays close to its industrial roots and true to its original design. Bestlite is held in permanent collections at both the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Design Museum in London. Loved by architects, designers and design aficionados throughout its long history, today, Bestlite has become a contemporary classic."
Robert Dudley Best
Robert Dudley Best (1892-1984) was heir to the world's largest lighting factory, founded in Birmingham in 1840. Despite its proud history, Best felt that the lamp designs produced by the factory were outdated. In 1925, Best visited the International Exhibition of Modern Design in Paris, where many of the designs exhibited were influenced by the work of Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe.
Inspired by what he had seen, Best began his studies of industrial design in Paris and Düsseldorf, where he became close friends with Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus movement. It was during this time that he made the first sketches of what would become the iconic Bestlite design.
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