Stylish and useful: why the Anglepoise remains a design classic

The tide of survival bias has retreated and left the Anglepoise a design classic. Its contemporaries from the mid-1930s, a BSA Scout and de Havilland Dragonfly, for example, have become quaint antiquities. Almost unmodified since 1934, it is that rarest of things: a design beyond fashion. And it has totemic qualities. For my generation, the possession of an Anglepoise as much as a set of David Mellor cutlery or even a chicken brick was a ticket to the modern world where perfect products made you happy. Or so the theory went.

To understand that modern world, now deceased, you need to appreciate basic analogue systems such as the rivet and the spring. The rivet is a bonding technique that made petrol tankers and submarines possible. A spring is an elastic mechanism for absorbing energy, usually made from coiled metal. Springs first appeared in door locks in the 15th century. They are fundamental to car suspension. Without springs your car would hit a bump and turn over.

This new book, which should of course have been called ‘The Light Stuff’, is an account of how the ingenious exploitation of springs created the world’s favourite desk light. Without springs, the Anglepoise’s unique positioning system would have been impossible. Can the story of a lamp sustain an entire book? The improvident Dorothy Parker was once forced by a mischievous literary editor to review a book on money management. She simply wrote: ‘This book tells me more about accounting than I care to know.’ That’s almost the case here, except Jonathan Glancey writes with infectious gusto while releasing impressive deposits of rare information.

In terms of reputation and recognition, the Anglepoise may be the most successful lamp ever. Users — people we might call the Light Brigade — include the Queen, Picasso, Lloyd George, Jim Callaghan and James Bond.