Traditional Table Lamp, Turned Ash Body 30 x 44 cm

The form is classical wood turning brought down to a size that works in a modern bedroom: a full bellied urn, narrowing to a neck, cut from solid North American ash hardwood and hand stained to a deep walnut tone with the grain reading through the finish. Worth stating plainly, because the color invites the assumption: this is ash with a walnut stain, not black walnut, which is a different and more costly species. Ash is a strong, fine grained hardwood that takes stain evenly, and because every body is turned from its own piece the grain pattern and the depth of color vary from lamp to lamp. Three shades mount on that same body at the same price. The plaid fabric with vertical brown trim reads traditional, the hand woven rattan casts a dappled glow and suits a coastal or Japandi room, and the woven fabric bound at the edge with leather is the tailored one for a study. All three are made by hand, so weave and trim vary slightly between pieces.

The bulb is already fitted, which is unusual: one 9W E26 LED at 2700K, roughly the output of a 60W incandescent, and rated at CRI 97. Color rendering is the number that matters there. Ordinary household LEDs sit near 80, and at 97 skin tones, fabrics, food and artwork read far closer to how they look in daylight, which is worth having in a room where you read, sew or hang pictures. When the bulb eventually goes, any standard E26 LED in the same wattage range will do. Two switches are fitted and they work independently: a brass pull chain hanging from the body, visible from the front, and a push button inline on the 2 m braided fabric cord. Either turns the light on or off, with no priority between them, so you use whichever falls closer to your hand. Neither dims. Adding an external plug-in dimmer and a dimmable E26 LED is the way to get dimming later.