George Nelson for Mondernica Medium Cigar Bubble Pendant. Original Price : $600

Design Plus Gallery presents the Medium Cigar Bubble Pendant for Modernica as Originally Designed by George Nelson in 1952. The Cigar was Nelsons 4th his lighting designs. While outfitting his office, architect and Herman Miller design director George Nelson discovered a silk-covered Swedish hanging lamp that he coveted but found too expensive. He then recalled seeing a photo in the paper of Liberty ships being mothballed “by having the decks covered with netting and then being sprayed with a self-webbing plastic,” which got him thinking. “And then, Whammo!” Inspiration struck, and by the next night, Nelson had designed his first Bubble Lamp by spinning a skeleton of steel wires on a turntable and shooting it with translucent plastic until it was covered in a smooth, washable film. “When you put a light in it, it glowed,” he said. In good condition, with some visible and minor wear from age and usage. There is a missing screw holding the cable that should be replaced while still being functional.