The PH 4/2 table lamp was designed by Danish architect and lighting innovator Poul Henningsen in the late 1920s and produced around 1930. A pioneer of glare-free lighting, Henningsen developed the PH system based on a precise mathematical relationship between shade size and light diffusion. The result is a harmonious, functional, and formally elegant design that reflects both scientific rationality and Nordic modernist aesthetics.
The lamp consists of a slender brass stem and circular base, supporting a tiered opaline glass shade system that provides soft, evenly diffused light. The model is a smaller and rarer variation of the famous PH 3/2 and 4/3 series. This early example was produced by Louis Poulsen, Henningsen's longtime manufacturing partner.