WG 27 vs WG 28 Wagenfeld Table Lamps: Which to Choose

The WG 27 and the WG 28 measure the same on paper and share the same clear glass body, yet they put light into a room in noticeably different ways. Both are Wilhelm Wagenfeld designs from the late 1920s, made today by TECNOLUMEN in Bremen, and the difference between them sits entirely in the shade. This guide sets the two lamps side by side and then adds the WSTL 30 floor lamp, for anyone deciding between a table and a corner.

One idea, developed over two years

Wagenfeld trained in the metal workshop of the Bauhaus in Weimar, and the glass table lamp he built there in 1924 shaped everything that followed. The WG 27 Wagenfeld Table Lamp dates from 1927, three years later, and takes that transparent body somewhere warmer. The clear glass base and shaft remain, so light and sight still pass straight through the lower half of the lamp, but above them sits a broad shade, originally cut from cellon, an early synthetic sheet that glowed gently when lit. The geometry stays disciplined while the light softens.

The WG 28 Wagenfeld Table Lamp followed in 1928 and pushed the same thought one step further, drawing the shade into a subtly conical form that sends more of the light downward. It is the most domestic member of the early Wagenfeld family: less a statement about the Bauhaus and more a lamp to read beside. By then Wagenfeld was already moving into the glassware and household objects that filled much of his later working life, and the shift in sensibility shows.

TECNOLUMEN builds both to the original proportions, replacing the period cellon with heat-resistant modern materials, and numbers each lamp consecutively with the TECNOLUMEN signet. If the glass body itself is the part you are weighing up, our piece on the glass and metal versions of the 1924 lamp covers that decision.

The measurements side by side

The two table lamps are dimensionally identical, which is the first thing to understand: choosing between them is not a question of size. The WSTL 30 is included here as the floor-standing relative, so you can see how far the scale moves once the same language stands on the ground.

What the shade does to the light

Both shades are conical, but the angle differs, and that angle is the whole argument. The WG 27 shade is the wider and flatter of the two, so a greater share of the output passes sideways through the fabric. The lamp reads as a warm presence in the room: it glows outward, fills the space around it and throws a generous, diffused pool rather than a tight one. Switched on alone in the evening, it behaves like a small source of ambient light.

The WG 28 shade is drawn into a deeper cone, which narrows the sideways spill and directs more of the light down onto whatever sits below: a book, a notepad, the edge of the table. A warm glow still filters through the fabric, so the lamp never turns into a task light in the clinical sense, but the working surface underneath is measurably better served. If you intend to actually read by the lamp rather than simply live with it, this is the one.

There is a second, quieter consequence. Because the WG 27 pushes more light outward at eye level, it is the better choice where the lamp will be seen from across a room, on a sideboard or at the end of a hallway. The WG 28, directing its light downward, is easier to sit beside for an hour without noticing the source at all.

Planning for 440 mm across

Whichever you choose, the practical number to hold in your head is 440 mm. That is the width of the lamp at its widest point, the shade, and it is considerably more than most side tables expect. On a 450 mm bedside table the shade will overhang on both sides; on a 600 mm table it leaves roughly 80 mm of clearance either side, which is workable but tight once a book and a glass of water join it. A console, a sideboard or a deep desk gives the design the room it was drawn for.

The base, by contrast, is modest: Ø 170 mm, so the lamp actually stands on very little. This gap between footprint and silhouette is worth planning around. Check the clearance above as well as beside, because the shade sits at a height of 500 mm and a low shelf or a wall-mounted cabinet above the table will crowd it. The 2.5 m cable gives reasonable freedom to reach a socket without running the flex tightly across a surface, though on a glass shaft the cable is visible, and it is worth choosing a position where it falls neatly behind the lamp rather than across the front.

When the floor makes more sense

If the tables in the room are already occupied, the WSTL 30 Wagenfeld Floor Lamp from 1930 carries the same thinking upward. At 1570 mm tall with a Ø 360 mm base and a 600 mm shade, it is a considerably larger object, and it swaps the glass body for nickel-plated metal on a black-lacquered base. The shade has a straight lower edge, and the diffused light through the fabric suits a reading chair, a sofa corner or a quiet office.

The choice between table and floor usually comes down to surfaces. A floor lamp needs no table at all and lights a zone rather than a spot, which is why it works well in a seating group where nobody wants another object on the coffee table. A table lamp puts the light closer to the hand and can be switched on by itself for a small pool of warmth. In a room with both, the WSTL 30 and a WG 28 read as clearly related without duplicating each other.

Choosing between them

Take the WG 27 if you want the lamp to light the room: a wide, outward glow on a console or sideboard, where its slightly flatter shade and glass body are seen in full. Take the WG 28 if you want the lamp to light a surface: a bedside table, a desk or a reading corner where the deeper cone puts the light where your hands are. Both stand 500 mm tall and 440 mm wide, both are numbered by TECNOLUMEN, and neither will look dated in a decade.

If you are still weighing heights and shade widths against the furniture you already own, the wider Table Lamps collection is the place to compare Wagenfeld's proportions with the Danish and Italian designs that sit in the same part of a room.