Flash lamp no. 5 – Eugène Émile Houillon – metal, steel ball joint – c. 1930

Adjustable lamp ÉCLAIR model no. 5, designed around 1930 by Eugène Émile Houillon — mechanical constructor in Nancy (1900–1999). The ÉCLAIR range is a series of registered models, whose existence is confirmed by a period commercial catalogue, stamped by a client or professional dealer from Lyon. The connection with Jean Prouvé is doubly documented. Prouvé chose Houillon's ÉCLAIR lamps for the equipment of the rooms in the Cité Universitaire de Monbois in Nancy in 1930 (CROUS tender). And a photograph by Simone Prouvé (1952), reproduced in the exhibition Jean Prouvé: the poetics of the technical object (Vitra Design Museum, 2006, p. 114), shows Jean Prouvé working in his workshops in Maxéville under this same ÉCLAIR model — in actual use, at the heart of his creative process. Model no. 5 is recognisable by its two articulated arms on steel ball joints shaped like a pipe wrench — an absolutely distinctive mechanical signature of the range. An object conceived by a constructor, not by a decorator: each joint is functional, precise, without superfluous ornamentation. The reflector is made of aluminium. The metal arms have been cleaned and waxed, without repainting. Wiring has been completely redone. Functional. Materials: Metal · Steel ball joint · Steel reflector. Model: ÉCLAIR no. 5 · Registered models. Manufacturer: Eugène Émile Houillon, Nancy · c. 1930 · France. Condition: Good condition · Wiring redone. Sources: Period commercial catalogue (complete ÉCLAIR range) · Jean Prouvé: the poetics of the technical object, Vitra Design Museum, 2006, p. 114 (Photo Simone Prouvé) · photo Cité universitaire de Nancy, student room, c. 1932. © Fonds Jean Prouvé. Centre Pompidou – MNAM/CCI – Bibliothèque Kandinsky – Dist. RMN-Grand Palais. Fits into an industrial, brutalist, modernist, or Prouvé interior. Fully documented piece — original catalogue and double Prouvé reference.