PH Septima: The Seven Shade Glass Pendant by Poul Henningsen

The PH Septima is the most unusual looking pendant in Poul Henningsen's catalogue, and it prompts the same question every time someone sees it lit: what are all those glass rings doing? The answer is that they are a light source you are never meant to look at directly. This is how the Septima is built, how it behaves in a room, and where it sits beside the two Henningsen pendants most people know.

Seven shades, and a bulb you never see

Henningsen spent his working life on one problem: electric light is small, bright and hard on the eye, so it has to be shaped before it reaches anyone. The PH Septima Pendant, introduced in 1928, answers that problem with seven glass shades suspended one inside the other. Each ring is held at its own angle on slim legs, and together they form a crown deep enough that the single bulb at its centre disappears from every normal viewing position, seated under it or standing across the room.

The effect is easiest to understand from below. Light leaving the bulb meets glass before it meets you, so nothing arrives raw. Some of it passes straight down through the open centre of the rings onto the table. The rest travels outward, is caught by the layer above or below, and leaves the fixture softened. That is the same logic Henningsen applied across the PH series, taken to an extreme the metal shades could not reach, because glass can do something aluminium cannot: it can hide the bulb and still glow.

Clear and sandblasted fields, alternating layer by layer

The glass itself is doing two jobs at once. Every shade is clear glass with sandblasted fields worked into it, and the pattern shifts from one layer to the next, so a clear area on one ring sits above a sandblasted area on the ring below. Where the glass is clear, light passes through and keeps its direction. Where it is sandblasted, the surface scatters light and turns that part of the shade into a soft luminous band.

Stacked seven deep and offset, those two treatments interlock. Any sightline towards the bulb runs into at least one sandblasted field, which is why the Septima stays comfortable to sit beneath. At the same time the clear fields keep the whole fixture transparent, so the crown carries an even ambient glow while crisp light still falls straight down onto whatever is under it. It is a single fixture behaving like two: ambient at eye level, directional on the table.

Glass, brass and a surface that changes

The shades are clear glass with sandblasted fields, each one finished by hand. The legs that carry them are steel with a brass metallised finish, and the socket housing and canopy are satin polished untreated brass. Untreated is the word to pay attention to: that brass is left without a lacquer, so it darkens and deepens over the years rather than staying at the tone it had on the day it was hung. Handling accelerates the change around the canopy, and the surface never goes uniformly dark, which is part of the appeal for anyone who likes materials that record time.

The pendant hangs from a 3 m white fabric cord with a wire inside, so the drop can be set high in a stairwell or shortened over a table. Light source is E27, one bulb, maximum 28 W, rated IP20 for indoor use, and the bulb is not included. The modest wattage ceiling matters more than it sounds: with seven layers of glass doing the softening, a low output bulb is enough, and a warm one around 2700 K keeps the sandblasted fields looking like light rather than like white plastic.

Septima, PH 5 and Artichoke compared

All three come from the same thinking, and they solve the glare problem with different materials. The PH 5 Pendant Lamp of 1958 uses the three shade system: an opaque main shade of 500 mm, matt lacquered aluminium with white inner sides, plus small red and blue inner cones that refine colour rendering. It throws light down and outward, and it reads as a solid object in the room.

The PH Artichoke Pendant Lamp, also 1958, was made for Copenhagen's Langelinie Pavilion, where the original fixtures still hang. Its 72 leaves in 12 rows overlap so the bulb is hidden from every angle and light bounces from leaf to leaf, which gives a sculptural, entirely opaque body in copper, brass, stainless steel or painted finishes across four sizes from Ø 480 to Ø 840 mm. The Septima sits between them in presence and apart from both in material: it fills as much space as a large pendant but you can see through it, which is why it defines a dining zone without closing off the view behind.

Size, weight and where to hang it

The Septima measures 500 mm wide by 405 mm high by 500 mm long and weighs 12.9 kg. That weight is the first practical thing to settle. A pendant of this mass needs a fixing point that is rated for it and wired by an electrician, not a plasterboard hook, and it is worth confirming the ceiling before the glass arrives. The footprint is compact for its visual scale, so it works over a round table of about 90 to 120 cm without crowding the setting.

Height follows the usual PH rule: roughly 60–70 cm between the tabletop and the bottom of the shade, low enough to light plates properly and high enough to keep sightlines clear across the table. Our guide on how high to hang a PH pendant over a dining table works through the measurements for rooms with taller ceilings. Over a kitchen island the same height applies; in a stairwell, hang it where the drop lets the glass be seen from more than one floor.

Living with a glass pendant

Transparency is the Septima's practical advantage and its one demand. Because you see the fixture rather than just its output, it rewards a position where daylight can reach it: near a window, above a table that gets morning sun, in a hallway with a rooflight. It settles naturally against pale wood, linen and stone, and it is calm enough to hang in a room that already has a strong table or a large painting.

Maintenance is straightforward. Dust settles on the upper faces of the glass, so a soft dry cloth two or three times a year keeps the sandblasted fields reading clearly, and the brass wants nothing at all unless you prefer it bright. If you want the layered Henningsen logic in metal instead, or a smaller drop for a narrow room, the rest of our pendant lamps collection gathers the Louis Poulsen classics alongside sculptural work from other Danish and European makers.