Paavo Tynell Copper Sea Shell Table Lamp Model 5321, Taito Oy 1940s

Already designed in 1938, this "seashell" lamp is considered as one of the first modernist table lamps by Paavo Tynell. A lamp that broke the earlier borders of the Art Deco and Bauhaus school that were prevailing in his designs.

This lamp playfully combines and derives its design from nature to effortlessly bring the warmth of the summer and the beauty of the sea into any interior it commands.

This rare example is from the 1940s and is made out of copper, not the usual brass. The material combined with the rattan adds a warmth and softness to the lamp. A beautiful lamp that goes to prove that best things come in small packages.

Paavo Tynell (1890-1973) started his career as a plater and blacksmith, until in 1912, he joined Koru Oy which was founded by Architect Eino Schroderus. There, he started studying metal virtu and as a student project, he produced his first ever documented brass lamp.
In 1913, Tynell traveled to Germany and worked for a short period in a metal factory before going back to his work and studies at Koru.
In 1916 he left Koru to continue his studies at the Central Applied Arts School (Now Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture) with Eric Ehrström as his teacher. During his first year, Tynell proved to be so skillful that he was asked by the headmaster Werner Von Essen to join the school as a teacher, which he did in 1917. In 1918, and along with his teacher E. Ehrström, artist Emil Wickström, industrialist Gösta Serlachius, and fellow metal artist Frans Nykänen, they founded Oy Taito Ab and the world became a brighter place.

Tynell designed lamps for his company Taito, which was the leading company in Finland and most of the public buildings commissioned their work through it. During that time Idman, Stockmann (owners of Orno), and many other smaller retail companies sold Taito lamps, until in 1953 Idman acquired Taito and the transition started from Taito to Idman. Simultaneously during that period and starting from 1948, Tynell designed lamps for the US market that were sold through Finland House in New York.

The American market received them well and Paavo Tynell had extensive road exhibitions in the United States that helped connect him with numerous Architects that commissioned many works through Finland House or directly through Idman and or Lightolier. A lot of these projects had unique lamps and sometimes difficult to identify designs. There are even furniture pieces designed by Tynell that are extremely difficult to recognize. In his later years and up until the late 60s and early 70s, Tynell kept designing lighting fixtures and designed a line of candleholders that he handmade himself at his home in Tuusula Finland.