Bestlite BL1
Robert Dudley Best's adjustable table lamp of 1930, with a hinged arm and a bell-shaped shade, now made by GUBI.
- Designed by
- Robert Dudley Best
- Made by
- GUBI
- First made
- 1930
Pictures © GUBI, from gubi.com.
Why it is renowned
The Bestlite has been in production without a break since 1930.1 Winston Churchill chose the BL1 for his desk in Whitehall and took it with him on his travels.1 The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds a pair of Bestlite wall lights, made in Birmingham by Best & Lloyd and fitted in a suite of the Savoy Hotel in the 1930s.2
The story
Robert Dudley Best ran his family's lighting firm, Best & Lloyd of Birmingham, from 1925.2 Before that he had studied at the Düsseldorf School of Industrial Art.2 The lamp took about 18 months to develop and was launched in May 1931; the museum reads it as an early sign of Bauhaus influence in England, close to Christian Dell's Rondella lamp.2 The table lamp was made alongside the wall version.2 GUBI makes the BL1 today as part of a Bestlite family of table, floor, wall and pendant lamps, with shades in metal or bone china.1
Sources
- Bestlite BL1 Table Lamp, GUBI. gubi.com, read 1 October 2026.
- Bestlite, Victoria and Albert Museum. api.vam.ac.uk, read 30 September 2026.
Last checked 1 October 2026, against the maker's own pages.