Rare ceiling lamp designed for the iconic Finland House by Paavo Tynell up for auction

Stockholms Auktionsverk Helsinki presents the spring Modern Art & Design auction, which goes under the hammer on April 27. The auction's main highlight is Paavo Tynell's rare ceiling lamp 9018, originally designed for the iconic Finland House restaurant in New York. The restaurant opened in Manhattan in April 1948, and a completely new lamp model was designed to decorate the bar on the upper deck of the restaurant. The lamp was then manufactured at the Taito factory on Vilhelmsberginkatu in Helsinki.

"Paavo Tynell's lamps have always been sought after, especially the models he created for cafés, restaurants, and other public spaces – because this usually means that they are produced in a small edition and are of high quality. In addition, his aesthetic is very distinctive and recognizable, and his name will always be associated with well-made and stylish lamps," says Dan von Koskull, branch manager and specialist at Stockholms Auktionsverk Helsinki.

Tynell was responsible for the lighting design of the entire restaurant, while architects Aarne Ervi and Helvi Mether-Borgström and interior architect Lasse Ollinkari were responsible for the rest of the interior design. Most of the materials were shipped to New York from Finland, and Tynell even traveled there himself to oversee the installation of the fixtures for the opening.

Ceiling lamp 9018 consists of ten perforated lampshades in polished brass, mounted on a ceiling fixture with figurative decoration. The animal motifs were designed by Paavo Tynell's wife, Helena Tynell, and were used for the bar ceiling lamps and as well as other furnishings throughout the restaurant interior. The ceiling lamps features stylized hares, foxes, moose, bears, capercaillies, fir trees and stars – Finnish nature exoticism in a modernist outfit.

In their own original way, the lamps of Finland House represent a shift in Tynell's lighting design after World War II. Tynell's design language had already begun to change towards softer shapes and warmer materials in the late 1930s. In a sense, it can be argued that the union of the critique of pure functionalism and the availability of brass after the war freed Tynell to combine rational design with the decorativeness inherited from his work in the 1920s.

Paavo Tynell's American reputation got off to a flying start when Finland House opened its doors on the New York restaurant scene and American magazines paid particular attention to the unique lighting fixtures. Although the project was relatively short-lived, the restaurant remains an essential symbol of Finland's westward orientation. And Paavo Tynell's lamps became a bridge for design from the small country of Finland with its strong belief in modernism.

Now a example of this rare lamp is presented to the market in the Modern Art & Design auction at Stockholms Auktionsverk in Helsinki, which will be held digitally on April 27. The viewing will be held at Eteläranta 14 from April 22.