Doria Leuchten

Ceiling lamp DORIA LEUCHTEN. Germany, 1970s.
Red and white lacquered metal.
Measurements: 18 x 42 x 42 cm.

Pendant lamp designed by the firm Doria Leuchten. In its design the influence of Pop Art is appreciated, contemporary movement to its manufacture. A ring of red lacquered metal discs surrounds a center formed by concentric circles of white discs. The singular structure seems to change shape and density depending on where it is observed.

Doria Leuchten was a lighting and mirror manufacturer, founded in 1945 by Walter Donner in Sonnefeld near Coburg, Germany and moved to Stadeln (Fürth) near Nürnberg in 1948, where they produced modern lighting for the international market. Over the years, the company was known by various names, including DORIA-Studio, as the in-house design team was called, while the company is often referred to simply as Doria Leuchten or Doria Werke. In the 1960s and 1970s they mainly manufactured glass lamps, made of cast and pressed ICE glass tubes and plates arranged on metal frames, but they also designed several models made entirely of sheet metal.

Doria Werke worked closely with several German industrial designers, including former Bauhaus student and metalworker Wolfgang Tümpel (1903-1978), Wilhelm Braun-Feldweg (1908-1998), who designed the Avus, Berlin Series and Modell 101 table lamps for the company in 1965, and Klaus Slama, who designed several lamps for Doria, including the iconic mushroom-shaped table lamp. In the 1960s, Doria made a huge crystal chandelier for a Saudi Arabian bank that became known as the world's largest chandelier, measuring more than 10 meters in length with two lamps joined together.