Model B54 Swivel Teak & Brass Table

A Scandinavian Modern table lamp with the poise of a heron, the B54 was designed by Hans-Agne Jakobsson in 1955 and made by AB Markaryd in Sweden during the 1950s, and this example carries its attribution mark. A single teak arm leans out from a round black metal base edged in brass, and at its tip sits a black metal cone, pinched at the crown like a twist of paper.

Jakobsson’s lamps, made in the small town of Markaryd in southern Sweden, are loved for their warm natural materials and their soft, considered light, part of a moment when Swedish design set out to make everyday objects gentle and humane. Here the idea is almost a drawing. One angled line of wood, one cone, one disc. The arm kicks out at its foot in a short dog-leg, held by a brass plate with slotted screws, and the whole lamp turns on its base, so the light follows you around the desk.

The teak has deepened to a reddish brown, its grain open and alive under the hand, and the brass band at the foot has mellowed to an old gold. The black finish on the shade and base was most likely renewed at a later date, and it gives the lamp a crisp, graphic outline against the wood. Set it on a writing desk or a sideboard and swing the cone low over a book in the evening, where it pools a tight circle of light and leaves the rest of the room in shadow. Against a pale wall it reads like a pen line drawn in the air.