Collecting Workshop Lamps: Gras, Jieldé and the Anonymous

The workshop lamp is the only collection that works: it gives light. Two French names dominate it, the Gras and the Jieldé, surrounded by a crowd of anonymous pieces. Switched on together, they make a wall.

Where to begin

The secondhand Jieldé: designed by Jean-Louis Domecq in 1950 and made in Lyon since the fifties, ball-jointed arm with no visible wiring, between €150 and €400 depending on condition and the number of arms. The same range for anonymous workshop lamps from the thirties to the sixties, provided the mechanism holds and the reflector is original.

What is worth the detour

The middle ground is the period Gras: patented by Bernard-Albin Gras in 1921, produced by Ravel in Clamart, articulated arm, sheet-metal reflector; Le Corbusier used it in his studio. Between €400 and €1,500 for a complete standard model; first-generation Jieldés hold the top of the range. The grail is the rare Gras — large models, original reflectors, intact paint — reaching several thousand euros at public auction. How to recognise it: the "GRAS" or "Ravel-Clamart" mark stamped into the metal, the Jieldé Lyon inscription on the base, and above all the original paintwork, matt and worn, as against the recent epoxy that erases the value. DCW éditions has been reissuing the Gras since 2008: the new pieces are crisp and glossy.

Where to look

Industrial flea markets, sales of workshop stock, where the lamps go in lots; Lyon for the Jieldé, which has stayed local; Saint-Ouen for the Gras, where you have to haggle. A repainted lamp fetches the price of an anonymous one.

How to gather them

In series, all switched on: five lamps on a wall at shoulder height, or lined up along a workbench. A single palette, black and grey, a single warm bulb for the lot. You mix Gras, Jieldé and anonymous pieces; not the colours.

Spotted a workshop lamp? Scan it on Beyit: the maker, the period, the going rate — and whether the paint is original.