ArtistDanish
Aage Petersen
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Aage Petersen trained as a sculptor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where his work developed a consistent focus on natural forms: birds, hedgehogs, snails, and botanical subjects that he rendered with warmth and precision. That grounding in observational sculpture shaped everything he went on to make, including the functional objects for which he became most widely known.
His transition into lighting design came through a long working relationship with Le Klint, the Danish company founded by the Klint family and long associated with hand-folded lampshades. Petersen brought a sculptor's sensibility to structural problems. The Telescope lamps, for which he is best remembered, solve a practical question - how to make a floor lamp or table lamp that adjusts in height without losing visual coherence - through interlocking brass tubes that extend and retract cleanly. The pleated paper shade, folded by hand in the Le Klint tradition, sits above this armature with a lightness that counters the weight of the brass below.
His principal sculptural commission was the Fakse Monument of 1938, a public work that demonstrated his ability to work at civic scale. He also produced decorative wall reliefs for Copenhagen Zoo, where his animal subjects and naturalistic approach found a fitting context. These commissions ran in parallel with his design output, the two strands of his practice reflecting the same interest in organic form rendered through careful craft.
Model 338, 349, and 352 are the Le Klint designs most commonly associated with Petersen. The 349 floor lamp, designed in 1946, adjusts from 113 to 158 cm and can tilt at the head, making it a practical reading lamp as well as a sculptural presence in a room. The 352 table lamp, from 1970, combines an adjustable brass arm with the Model 1 folded shade. Both remain in production, an unusual distinction for mid-century Danish design work.
In the Nordic auction market, Petersen's work appears almost exclusively as lighting. All 14 items recorded on Auctionist fall under lighting categories, with the Telescope brass lamps making up the majority. Bruun Rasmussen has handled the largest share of these lots, primarily through their Aarhus and Lyngby rooms. Prices at Danish houses have ranged up to 6,000 DKK for a Telescope brass and black lacquered table lamp, with floor lamps typically settling between 2,000 and 4,000 DKK. Demand is consistent rather than speculative, driven by buyers looking for functional vintage Danish design that still works as intended.