DCW Mantis BS3 table lamp

In 1951 Bernard Schottlander created the Mantis series of lamps. Movement is essential to all Schottlander's work. As an artist, engineer and, to a great extent, a craftsman, he developed an ingenious system of counterweights combined with a series of strong and flexible metal rods. The shade is unique in its kind. Suspended in the air like an acrobat, it is made from aluminium using a spinning and casting process. This shows not only the skill of the metalworker, but also the sculptor's eye to create a spiral movement where symmetry and asymmetry are in opposition. His lamps, with their eternal play between balance and imbalance, reveal some of the secrets of what is meant by 'solid and light'. And like his ideal, the 'mobile', they seem to defy the law of gravity. The essential poetry of the object is an invitation to a dream world of carefully balanced elegance.