The PH Septima is regarded as one of Poul Henningsen’s most refined pendants. When it was exhibited for the first time as a prototype at the Danish Museum of Decorative Art (now "Designmuseum Danmark") in 1928, the poetic piece was publicly applauded. Based on Henningsen's three-shade system, the glass crown has four extra shades inserted between the three basic shades—all seven produced in very delicate, but robust, Italian borosilicate glass. The shades made of clear glass are treated to appear with alternating clear and frosted fields and are positioned so that the frosted fields cover the clear fields underneath, allowing the shades to spread the light in a more diffused manner while maintaining glare-free, downwardly directed light distribution. In addition, a neat round glass cup is placed at the top to prevent dust, etc., from falling into the lamp.
In 1931, a smaller version, PH Septima 4, was launched based on the shade sizes of the PH 4/4 lamp, whereas the original PH Septima 5 is based on the shade sizes of the PH 5/5. During the development of the PH Septima, Henningsen designed a metal version as well, but it never reached production. The drawings, however, formed the basis for the development of the PH Artichoke, designed around three decades later, for the Langelinie Pavilion in Copenhagen. In the 1940s, however, the esteemed PH Septima went out of production along with numerous other lamps due to a shortage of raw materials. In 2020, Louis Poulsen brings back Henningsen’s sophisticated seven-shade glass crown, based on the PH Septima 5, with optimized suspension and enhanced glass for better endurance and stability.
