Jo Hammerborg 'Trombone' Floor Lamp for Fog & Mørup, Denmark 1960s – White Adjustable Mid-Century Reading Lamp
A white lacquered and chromed steel 'Trombone' floor lamp, designed by Jo Hammerborg for Fog & Mørup, Denmark, 1960s. The cylindrical shade tilts and rotates on a chromed swivel arm, while the sliding crossbar allows the head to be raised or lowered along the stem — the sliding action that gave the model its name. Pull-cord switch, circular white metal base. A characteristic example of Hammerborg's functional, sculptural approach to lighting design during his years as chief designer at Fog & Mørup.
Information
This 'Trombone' floor lamp was designed by Jo Hammerborg for the Danish lighting manufacturer Fog & Mørup in the 1960s. It is one of the more mechanically distinctive designs to come out of Hammerborg's tenure as chief designer at the company, taking its name from the sliding chromed crossbar that runs across the stem: pulling it up or down extends or retracts the upper section of the lamp, echoing the slide mechanism of a trombone. It is a functional detail as much as a visual one, allowing the light source to be repositioned without altering the angle of the shade itself.
The cylindrical shade sits on a separate swivel joint, so it can be tilted and rotated independently of the sliding arm, giving a wide range of directional lighting from a single fixed base. This makes the lamp equally suited to reading, task lighting near a desk or armchair, or simply as an ambient light source angled toward a wall or ceiling. The lamp is operated by a pull-cord switch running down from the shade, a period-correct detail found on the original Fog & Mørup production.
Construction is in white lacquered metal for the base and shade, with polished chrome used for the visible stem, sliding crossbar and swivel joint — a material combination typical of Hammerborg's work in this period, where chrome was used deliberately for the moving or mechanical elements and lacquer for the static body of the piece. The circular base gives the lamp a stable, grounded footprint without the visual weight of a tripod or angular base, keeping the emphasis on the sculptural upper section.
Jo Hammerborg (1920–1982) trained as a silversmith at Georg Jensen before becoming chief designer at Fog & Mørup in 1957, a role he held until 1980. Under his direction the company became one of the leading lighting manufacturers in Scandinavia, and his designs — Trombone, Studio, Senior and President among them — remain widely collected today, with several models recently reissued by Warm Nordic in collaboration with the Hammerborg family.
Dimensions: 150 cm H x 45 cm W x 25 cm D