Cap d'Ail Collection Plant Holder Floor Lamp, by Mathieu Matégot, French Work, circa 1950

One of the most poetic and inventive objects in the canon of French Mid-Century design, this plant holder floor lamp from the celebrated Cap d'Ail collection encapsulates the singular genius of Mathieu Matégot. Combining a light source with a series of removable plant pot holders — arranged with characteristic élan along a lacquered iron column rising to 179 cm — this piece transforms a domestic necessity into a sculptural event. The white lacquered finish, so emblematic of Matégot's aesthetic, gives the form a graphic clarity that remains as striking today as when it first appeared in the Parisian interiors of the early 1950s.

Mathieu Matégot (1910–2001), born in Hungary and trained as a stage designer before establishing himself in Paris after the Second World War, became one of the defining figures of French postwar design. Working principally in perforated and lacquered steel — a material he developed under the trade name 'rigitulle' — Matégot created furniture, lighting and decorative objects of extraordinary lightness and formal originality. His Cap d'Ail collection, named after the Provençal village where he summered, combined planting, lighting and storage in configurations that delighted clients as much for their practicality as for their distinctive beauty.

Today, Matégot's work is actively sought by major museums and private collectors worldwide, with pieces appearing regularly at the leading international auction houses. This lamp represents an exceptional opportunity to acquire an example from one of the designer's most celebrated collections — an object that inhabits the boundary between furniture and sculpture, between the functional and the purely beautiful. At 179 cm, it fills any interior with the vivid, optimistic energy of the finest French postwar design.