Danish Tripod Table Lamps in Brass by Josef Frank for Fog & Mørup, 1960s, Set of 2

A Brief History of Johannes Hammerborg

Danish designer Johannes Hammerborg, often called Jo, was born in Randers, Denmark, in February 1920. After graduating from high school, Hammerborg went on to train as a silversmith in Randers and Silkeborg during 1942 and 1943. In 1944, Hammerborg entered the prestigious Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, and exhibitions of his paintings were held in Randers each year between 1944 and 1947. Hammerborg entered the Danish silversmith firm, Georg Jensen in 1949 where he worked as a silversmith for eight years.

Johannes Hammerborg at Fog & Mørup

Johannes Hammerborg joined the Danish lighting manufacturer Fog & Morup where he became their head of design in 1957. While Hammerborg was at the helm, Fog & Mørup saw its most successful period in its 80 year-old history, both artistically and commercially. Hammerborg introduced a new modernist aesthetic to the designs, and every aspect of the company, be it the smallest component of a pendant lights pendant light or the labelling and packaging, came under the exacting eye of Hammerborg. During the Hammerborg era, Fog & Mørup won international acclaim and generated huge markets both at home and abroad.

The Portfolio of Johannes Hammerborg

Johannes Hammerborg personally created over sixty lamps, ranging from large Floor Lamps to ceiling lamps, and he also collaborated with other designers to ensure their designs met the high standards of Fog & Mørup’s new production requirements. To this day, Hammerborg’s designs remain fresh and compelling, and have won numerous awards over the years, including the CICi first prize in 1965 for the Nova, and four iF Product Design Awards in 1969 for the Classic, Tunika, Saturn and Diskos. Hammerborg left Fog & Mørup in 1980, and opened his own lighting design business. Tragically, Hammerborg passed away in 1982 after a skydiving accident on the island of Bornholm.

Architect, designer, and theorist Josef Frank was born in Austria in 1885. He became an early advocate for modernist principles alongside contemporaries such as Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. By the beginning of the 1920s, however, he began to question modernism’s growing programmatic streak, arguing instead that pluralism, not uniformity, most characterized life in the machine age. In 1933, he fled the Nazi regime, relocating permanently to Sweden. There, Frank’s softened version of modern design found a warm reception.

For more than thirty years, Frank worked as chief designer for the Stockholm-based furnishings firm Svenskt Tenn. He was responsible for a wide variety of product designs, including furniture , lighting , wallpaper, and textiles , as well as pieces specially commissioned for private interiors all over the world. Throughout his long career, Frank continuously balanced the simplicity of modernist forms with the pleasures and comforts of fine materials and rich, decorative detail.

Finnish industrial designer Paavo Tynell was born in Helsinki in 1890. During his formative years, Tynell apprenticed as a blacksmith, after which he began working for Finnish metalsmith Koru Oy. During his time there, he also studied at the Helsinki University of Industrial Arts. In 1913, he was awarded the title of master craftsman.

In 1918, Tynell co-founded the metalwork and lighting company Oy Taito Ab; his partners included Gösta Serlachius, Emil Wickström, Eric Ehrström, and Frans Nykänen. In its early years, the company focused on interior and exterior metalwork, such as statues, railings, and silverware. During the 1930s, however, the company began producing lamps for the lighting sector. Both Alvar Aalto and Kaj Franck designed for the company at the start of their soon-to-be successful careers.

Aalto and Tynell formed a long-lasting friendship that resulted in Tynell designing lighting for Aalto's company Artek, particularly for various private and public commissions like the Paimio Sanatorium (1929-33), the Savoy Restaurant (1937), and the Viipuri Library (1935). Tynell, who also designed jewelry, forged the wedding rings for Aalto and his wife, Aino Mandelin Aalto.

In 1947, Tynell began working with the New York design gallery, showroom, and restaurant Finland House, which showcased his work alongside other Finnish designers. His success in New York led to design partnerships with American lighting design companies Lightcraft and Lightolier, where he worked beside American industrial designer Gerald Thurston. During this time, his designs were marketed under the Finland House name but continued to be produced by his company in Helsinki.

Tynell worked as the CEO and chief designer of Oy Taito Ab until his retirement in 1953. The company was sold to Finnish lighting company Idman Oy, which Tynell had been cooperating with over the years. Idman restructured the company and production under the new name. Tynell designed for Iman until the mid-1960s, while also working as a freelance designer for many other companies in Finland and abroad.

Notably, during the 1950s, Tynell collaborated with architect and interior designer Aarne Ervi, who featured Tynell’s lighting designs in many of his projects, including the Tapiola Housing Project in Espoo, Finland, various private residences, and a power plant located in northern Finland.

Known for their delicate aesthetic, Tynell’s designs often utilize perforated metal and brass and reference nature through stylized leaves, vines, and snowflakes. From the 1930s throughout the 1950s, he was considered one of Finland’s most successful lighting designers, celebrated for his contributions to the Sokos Hotel and its penthouse lounge Café Vakuuna (both 1952); the office of the Secretary General of United Nations in the United States (1952-5); the Lasipalatsi building in Helsinki; and the Helsinki Central Railway Station.

Over the course of his illustrious career, Tynell received many awards and accolades, including first prize for Best Lighting Design at the American Interior Decorator’s Competition (1950), as well as recognition at the Barcelona World Exhibition (1929) and Milan’s Triennale (1933).

Tynell passed away in 1973 in Helsinki. 

Danish modern lighting manufacturing company Fog & Mørup was founded by Ansgar Fog (1880 to 1930) and Erik Mørup (1879-1972) in Aarhus, Denmark in 1904. In its first incarnation, the company operated as a metalwork wholesaler. In 1906, the pair moved to Copenhagen and began to focus on lighting production, over the years buying up a number of electrical and lighting companies. The company continued to expand steadily through World War II. One of the most successful Fog & Mørup products from the pre-war era was the Kongelys Lamp, named for the Danish King Christian X in honor of his 25th jubilee in 1937.

After the war—especially in the 1960s and ’70s—Fog & Mørup’s international reputation reached new heights. In 1959, Johannes (Jo) Hammerborg(1920-1982) joined as head of design and introduced modernist design principles to the Fog & Mørup collections. Streamlined, sleek forms become the company’s signature aesthetic, which was expressed in a range of lamps, pendants, and sconces designed by Hammerborg and other outside designers, like Jørgen Bo, Sophus Frandsen, and Torsten Thorup. Standout designs include the Semi Pendant by Thorup and Claus Bonderup (1967); the Falcon Pendant by Andreas Hansen (1967); and the Nova Pendant (1963), Trombone Lamp (ca. 1966), and Copper Kastor collection (ca. 1969-71) by Hammerborg.

In 1978, Fog & Mørup merged with leading Danish modern lighting manufacturer Lyfa, and Hammerborg retired in 1980. Through the course of the remaining years of the 20th century, the once pioneering Danish lighting brand lost steam as the company changed hands again and again. In 2005, following its final acquisition by Nordlux of Ålborg, Fog & Mørup official closed.