Light on an Era
BY PIERRE LÉONFORTE
Designed in 1970 by the Dutch designer Ben Swildens for Verre Lumière, his historic editor, the Jumelles lamp reignites its two hemispheres, reconnected by the new structure Source Edition.
His father, an architect, gave him a cosmopolitan spirit at ease in Morocco as in Switzerland, in New York as in Paris. Pencil in hand, the Dutch designer and architect Ben Swildens (1938–2023) worked in the early 1960s alongside Joseph-André Motte, who was then creating the interior designs for Orly Airport and the Maison de la Radio. After being recruited by the master glassmaker Max Ingrand, then artistic director of Saint-Gobain and the Milanese firm Fontana Arte, Swildens co-designed in 1966, with the latter, the décor of the new Peugeot exhibition hall, located on Avenue de la Grande Armée in Paris. The highlight of this project was the famous "ribbon desk"—a piece of furniture made entirely of stainless steel, designed for the reception hostesses and handcrafted by the Croiseau workshop in only three copies. A design icon quietly reissued a few years ago by the French company Furdess, founded by Elsa and Grégory Maître. It was Max Ingrand who later encouraged Swildens to create his own pieces, which have since entered the design legend. Among them: the Œuf lamp (1969), as well as glass-top coffee tables with steel bases (1971), made for Point, a company both producing and selling contemporary furniture. This establishment was founded by Swildens and his wife Dominique Goutal (sister of the famous perfumer Annick Goutal), along with her brother-in-law Bernard Cohen and another Goutal sister, Marie-France, married to Cohen. From this collaboration would later emerge the Bonpoint boutiques. Completed in 1969, the collaboration between Ingrand and Swildens launched the latter on a new path, notably for the company Verre Lumière, founded in 1968 as a partnership between Saint-Gobain and Mazda.
A Symbol of the Pompidou Era
As a supplier to the Élysée Palace, Verre Lumière produced, among others, the Brasilia lamps (1972) by Michel Boyer, designed for the French Embassy in Brazil. But before that, there were Swildens' Jumelles, a somewhat forgotten lighting design now reissued by the new company Source Edition. At its head are Isabelle de Ponfilly (former director of Vitra France) and her daughter Joséphine Bursacchi, who have been endorsed by the Mobilier National to reissue works by major figures of French design from the 1970s to the 1990s. The Jumelles lamps by Swildens, made in France, feature a base in brushed aluminum or in ivory, black, or antique red, and a satin glass globe. Designed to sit on a surface or be mounted on the wall as a sconce, they are sold for €990.
Source Édition
23, rue d'Aboukir – Paris 2e
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