Chester table lamp

The design of this table lamp formally refers to the 1960s: its appearance with the base and the round rod made of stainless steel and the solid knurled screw is rather technical. The two-piece shade can be rotated 360° around the rod after loosening the knurled locking screw, and can be adjusted in height and beam direction. The light beam is primarily directed forward, but at the same time the shade is open to the rear, which means that a part of it always radiates into the surroundings. The inside (as well as outside, by the way) untreated brass or copper surfaces thereby ensures a warm, natural light tone.

Lamps made by BTC (= British Timeless Classics), in the vicinity of Oxford, have attained the status of timeless classics. The creative spirit and driving force behind the firm is Peter Bowles, who pursues his very clear idea and just as clearly realises his agenda. The process starts with the manufacture: Bowles wants to produce lamps that are British down to the level of detail. For example, the bone china-lamp shades come from a pottery in Stoke-on-Trent, known as the "the Potteries" because of the almost 500 potteries that used to be located there. Almost all are gone today and the firm, which also belongs to Bowles, would not exist except for BTC. He took it over when it was on the brink of bankruptcy and has restructured it while keeping all the employees. The hand-blown glass domes come from a glass blowing shop in Worcestershire which Bowles also bought. In addition to domes for lamps, the shop produces coloured glass windows for historical buildings and churches. A handful of glass blowers with their two small smelting furnaces practice the methods of glass blowing and uphold the once famous English tradition of this trade. The British manufacture of the lamps extends to the cables, too. Bowles was dissatisfied with the plastic wrapped cables on his first lamp, so he used a locally produced cloth wrapped cable from a clothes iron for his exhibition piece. The reaction was so positive that he has used cloth cable since. They are locally produced near the firm in home-based work.