Le Klint

Why it is renowned

Le Klint is known for the pleated lampshade: a single sheet of paper or plastic folded into a shade that holds its own shape.¹ Kaare Klint, the architect often called the father of Danish Modern, designed several of its lamps, among them the Model 101 of 1944.¹ Poul Christiansen's Model 172 of 1971, folded along sine curves, gave the company its international breakthrough and built up its exports.¹

The lamps have been supplied to the Royal Danish Court over the years, including for the royal yacht Dannebrog and the royal railway carriage, and on 15 April 2003 Le Klint was appointed Purveyor to the Royal Danish Court.² The company exported from the 1950s, when Jan Klint returned from the United States to run it.¹

The story

Around 1900 the architect P.V. Jensen-Klint, who built Grundtvig's Church in Copenhagen, folded a paper shade for a stoneware oil lamp, using a cross-pleating technique that gave the shade a collar at right angles to its pleats.¹ His son Tage Klint added a grip collar that holds the shade on its frame and patented it in 1938.¹ In 1943 he founded the company and named it after his daughter, Lise Le Charlotte Klint, who helped with production and ran the first shop in Store Kirkestræde in Copenhagen.³¹

In the 1960s production moved to its own premises at Egestubben in Odense, where its head office and production still are.¹ Since 1972 the company has been owned by the Klint Foundation, set up by Jan Klint to keep production in Odense.¹ The Model 1, the first shade, is still made the same way.¹

What to know it by

• Model 1721971Poul ChristiansenPendant folded along sine curves
• Model 1011944Kaare KlintClosed pleated pendant, the Lantern
• Sax1952Erik HansenExtending wall lamp with a pleated shade
• Model 1Tage KlintThe first shade, with the grip collar
• Model 3681979Flemming AggerBlack metal floor lamp, the Agger lamp