Verner Panton Fun Shell Lamp

Bond villain Blofeld decorates his Piz Gloria lair in the movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) with two Verner Panton Shell Lamps from the 'Fun' series.

The lamps in the Fun series are made from translucent round discs which are connected to one another with small metal rings. The chains of varying lengths are either suspended from a metal ring or in the case of the larger models (see below) a large round ceiling plate made from laminated wood. In the Fun series there are different shapes and sizes of the lamps, depending on the number and length of the chains of discs. The bulb is always located in the centre of the lamp.

The lamp, also sometimes referred to as a 'capiz shell' chandelier, was designed by Vernon Panton, a Danish designer also responsible for the Pantonella Chair system seen in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). The design is from 1960 and the earlier models were produced in Switzerland by J. Lüber AG.

The smaller lamp seen it the film is the Verner Panton Fun 0 DM lamp or chandelier. DM stands for Deckenmontage (ceiling lamp), as opposed to some WM (Wand Montage, fixed to the wall) or TM (Tischleuchte, table lamp). It has 3 tiers (metal rings) on which the chains and discs are suspended.

It can be spotted in the room where James Bond (posing as Sir Hillary Bray) is staying when he visits Blofeld's lair Piz Gloria in Switzerland. When Bond arrives he checks the room for audio bugs, and he first looks in the hanging shell lamp.

A much larger version of the shell lamp, the Verner Panton Fun 5 DM, is hanging in Blofeld's office, and this lamp also gets a lot of screentime.

When the attack of Bond and his allies on Piz Gloria is imminent, Bond Girl Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo (played by Diana Rigg) is even touching one of the shells and holding it close, giving us a great close up of the lamp, chains and discs.

This larger lamp measures approximately 160cm (5.2ft) in height and has a diameter of 50cm (20").

Verner Panton Fun lamps can still be found in second hand furniture stores and there's usually a few available on eBay.