Green Fresnel Theatre Spotlight Floor Lamp from Strand Electric, England, 1960s

A green-patinated Strand Electric Patt 45, one of the most recognized names in British stage lighting, standing on a German army field tripod from Munich's Ertel-Werk.

Strand Electric began in 1914, when two London theatre electricians, Arthur Earnshaw and Phillip Sheridan, set up shop in the city's West End. The company grew steadily over the following decades, but it was the arrival of designer Frederick Bentham in 1932 that changed its direction, his work went on to define British theatre lighting for the rest of the century. Strand's Pattern 23, launched in 1953, became the world's first mass-produced theatre spotlight, and the company continued supplying fixtures and controls to theatres, television studios, and concert halls across Britain and beyond, later continuing for decades as Rank Strand following its 1968 acquisition by the Rank Organisation.

The Patt 45 arrived in 1960 as a straightforward, hard-working member of that lineup, a 500 watt Fresnel spotlight built from mild steel at Strand's Covent Garden factory, fitted with a short-focus lens for a soft-edged beam and designed to be practical rather than decorative. It remained in production until 1978, lighting stages across Britain for close to two decades of steady, unglamorous service. This example carries an original green patina built up over exactly that kind of working life, a finish no restoration could recreate convincingly because it was earned one production at a time.

The tripod beneath it comes from an entirely different world. Ertel-Werk of Munich traced its own history to 1802 and a precision workshop founded by Georg von Reichenbach, building astronomical and surveying instruments known across Germany for their accuracy, work exact enough that the company was called on to manufacture components for the Enigma cipher machine during the Second World War. This folding wooden field tripod, issued to the postwar Bundeswehr, carries that same tradition of purpose-built engineering.

The spotlight has been fully rewired and fitted with an E27 socket, approximately 3 meters of cable and an inline switch. Non-original barndoors are included and easily removable. The spotlight measures 29 x 31 x 22 cm. Mounted on the tripod, the total height adjusts from 105 to 150 cm.