Why Designers Can't Get Enough of Jean Royère's Liane Light Fixtures

By Hannah Martin

In 1949, just returned from a tour of Scandinavia, French designer Jean Royère penned a detailed report of his journey for the magazine Le Decor d’Aujourd’hui. In his entry about Stockholm, he gushed about the jungle atmosphere at Svenskt Tenn, the design emporium run by Josef Frank. ” Soon after, Royère designed Liane—vine in English—a series of squiggly, hand-forged tubular steel lamps that crawled across the wall like ivy, with the stems held in a bouquet by a block at the base.