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Curtis Lighting, Handbook "J", 1937 (Klemm Reflector Co. archives)
Curtis Lighting, Handbook "J", 1937 (Klemm Reflector Co. archives)
Other images from Curtis Lighting, Handbook "J"
Seeing the Light--Not
Our Tessa is based on just one of dozens of different "Eye-Comfort" Luminaires offered by Curtis Lighting Inc. of Chicago in the late 1930s. All variations on the same theme (a theme embraced by nearly all commercial lighting manufacturers between 1935 and 1940) these classic fixtures combine large aluminum or steel spinnings with pendants utilizing high-wattage commercial bulbs to produce what was considered at the time the most advanced and "scientific" form of lighting yet devised--indirect or "Eye-Comfort" lighting.
Cutting-Edge Style
Relying almost entirely on reflected light from surfaces above (and protecting sensitive eyes from the harsh glare of visible bulbs) indirect fixtures were designed to illuminate spaces by throwing a wide and evenly diffused glow across high ceilings. Married with the Streamline principles espoused by industrial designers like Raymond Loewy, Norman Bel Geddes, Walter Dorwin Teague, and Walter von Nessen, indirect pendants were the epitome of late-Depression style. They were used everywhere from corporate offices and automobile showrooms to university laboratories and schoolhouse classrooms--often as updates to older out-dated fixtures. They remained popular well into the 1950s.
