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Rimsa lamp |
Best 'price-quality' desk lamp for the woodcarving studio |
Classical Rimsa, desk/clamp lamp,
best 'price-quality' for the woodcarving studio
A scissor
arm, bureau lamp, architect or desk lamp... (I don't really know the correct
name) that can take a beating is very difficult to find nowadays.
I myself
have a number of them in my woodcarving workshop, and this for the most varied
work.
About 20/30
years ago it was very easy to get this kind of simple design looking lamps. You
went to the local electrical shop and always there was a limited choice of desk
lamp models in different colors available in the showroom. They were quite
resistant and were meant for the room where hardly any visitors came: the
children's bedroom or for the student rooms. Because they didn't look really
hip at that time, but they didn't have to, all they had to do was do what they wanted,
'bring light into the darkness'. Nowadays these kind of lamps are hip and very popular.
Cheap is an
expensive purchase.
Unfortunately,
the only desk / scissor lamp currently readily available is a desk lamp from
the Swedish interior shop, whose name I do not want to mention in this blog
item, I have been buying annually 2 to 3 of these lamps, always the same model.
They are
made in such a way with the intention that the item does not have a long
life. After a while she starts to show
small defects, parts come loose, is crooked, etc... and is intended to be
replaced.
Rimsa
But there
is one model of lamp in my studio that I have been using for about 18 years, it
is a hinged lamp/desk lamp from the Italian brand Rimsa, founded in 1936. This lamp has never let me down. It has been
made with solid parts and at the critical points and places where a faster
aging is possible, it has been very well thought out to guarantee a longer use
of the lamp.
And this
guarantee that the lamp can be used for a long time is clearly visible on the
internet, and this under the name 'vintage'.
When in
2019 I again showed interest in a quality purchase, and this to replace the
Swedish cheap ones, I came across some Rimsa vintage lamps on Dutch sites: 60 Euro for a second hand lamp (2019) and I
thought 'wow, that's expensive for a second hand lamp!
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| Rimsa Model 10 |
Purchase at
Schleiper* 18 years ago
(Scheilper
is a Belgian chain specialises in the arts, crafts and framing)
The use of
the Schleiper website online is very unfriendly (2019), even if you only need
information from a branch, for me this was the branch in Hasselt*. (City in Belgium) You always get the same textband with many
options and options to hear, department here, possibility there...etc, with a
reference to their online site..... but
does not provide a link for a direct telephone contact with the branch itself.
You will be sent around in a loop, as it were.
Until I got
the idea to leave a message on the FB page of Schleiper with the question
'Please contact me by phone'. And actually... a few hours later I had contact
with the store manager in Hasselt. How difficult can it be?!
From the
telephone conversation with Schleiper branch manager, where I bought my first
copy 18 years ago, they told me that they were no longer selling desk lamps of
this Italian brand. What a waste of time: first to try to get in touch and then
to be told that they no longer distribute this quality product.
The only
place online where I could still find Rimsa lamps was on an Italian sales site
- the manufacturer's site (Rimsa) is only informative and shows what they have
to offer; the offer is great and very impressive and you will certainly find
your choice there. I was interested in the model 10 and possibly 80.
The price
of a type 10 is about 125 Euro and the price of a type 80 is 190 Euro. You
wouldn't think it's cheap, but if you think that you're buying a super quality
lamp here and can still sell it as a vintage lamp 40 to 50 years later, then
it's actually not expensive in comparison to the cheap lamps that are meant to
be thrown away in the short term!
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| RIMSA, model 80 |
October
2019
I never buy
online so I contacted the company in Italy to ask if there are any distributors
or shops in Belgium that offer their products. I got a friendly email back from
Sales Manager Francesca Polizzi telling me that they still don't have an online
store at the moment, but if I would send them my VAT number by email they could
help me out anyway. And I was still able to make a purchase in this way.
(A blog entry originally from my Dutch woodcarving blog, translation by DEEPL Translator)
Catalogue
Rimsa
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| Rimsa classical and new design - desk lamps |
Expensive
alternative, Jieldé
An
alternative to Rimsa are the lamps of the French brand Jieldé: beautiful design
and intended to last a lifetime, but they are a very expensive alternative! If
you visit the L'école Boulle in Paris (Annuel open doors) you will see these
lamps regularly in the studios.
As I said
before: they last a lifetime and if you want to sell them in 50 years, you will
always find a buyer for them. Even then there are still customers for these
table clamp lamps.
A Jieldé
lamp easily costs 300 to 400 Euros and sometimes even more.
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| Jieldé lamp |
Atelier
Boulle*
(Boulle or l'école Boulle in Paris is a school for traditional art and crafts )
I don't
really understand the reason for the management of L'école Boulle in Paris, but
a few years ago the very solid Jieldé lamps were replaced and referred to a
storage space (??!!) In February 2016 there were new lamps in the workshop of the
woodcarvers department of école Boulle.
New lamps 'made in Belgium' was marked on the lamps, and when I asked the students in 2018 about their experience
with these new ones, they were not really enthusiastic. With a small inspection
I also had my doubts whether these new models could stand the test of time,
they already had defects after 2 years of use. A very impractical lamp for the
woodcarver bench in my professional opinion.
So it's a
personal consideration, but the Rimsa lamps are an affordable alternative and
after 50 years you still have a return and you can still sell them. So buying
quality is always better than choosing a cheap product and also not unimportant
it is better for the environment.
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| L'école Boulle Paris | The old Jieldé lamps (2015) |
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| Boulle Paris | The new lamps in 2018 |
