ADB BU.5 Belgian Studio Spotlight Floor Lamp | 1960s Stage Light on Ertel-Werk Bundeswehr Field Tripod

A Belgian ADB studio spotlight from the 1960s, paired here with a German army field tripod made by Ertel-Werk, one of Munich's oldest precision instrument makers. Two very different manufacturing traditions, stage lighting and military optics, brought together in a single adjustable floor lamp.

At a glance

The story

Adrien De Backer founded ADB in Belgium in 1920, giving the company his own initials as its name. It began far from the stage, producing rheostats, the electrical resistors used to control current in laboratory equipment, before that same technology found its real calling in theatre. ADB built the first light dimmer for the city theatre in Mechelen, a piece of equipment that reportedly stayed in reliable service for more than forty years, and the company grew from there into one of Europe's most respected names in theatre, television, and studio lighting. It remained family-run until 1987, when Siemens acquired the business, and the brand continues today as part of the Clay Paky group, with ADB lighting still found in some of the world's most prestigious theatres.

This BU.5 comes from the 1960s, a decade when ADB fixtures were everyday equipment on Belgian stages, in television studios, and on film sets. Its hammered grey paint is entirely original, worn down honestly over decades of real work rather than polished back to a false shine, and the original beam-adjustment knob still functions exactly as it did on set, shifting the light from a tight spot to a soft, wide flood.

Tripod Ertwel-werk / Bundeswehr

The tripod tells its own, quite different story. It was built by Ertel-Werk, a Munich firm whose history stretches back to 1802 and the precision workshop of Georg von Reichenbach, later carried forward under Traugott Ertel's name. For well over a century, Ertel-Werk built some of the finest astronomical and surveying instruments made in Germany, work precise enough that the company was called on during the Second World War to manufacture components for the Enigma cipher machine, before the factory shifted fully to wartime production. This particular tripod, a folding wooden field stand issued to the German Bundeswehr, reflects that same tradition of exacting, purpose-built engineering, just applied to carrying optical equipment into open terrain rather than the workshop bench. Pairing it with a Belgian stage light was never the intention of either manufacturer, but the proportions suit each other far better than that mismatched history would suggest.

The spotlight itself has been completely rewired for safe use at home or in a studio, fitted with an E27 socket, a switch, an EU plug, and roughly 3 metres of cable, so it works with any standard LED or incandescent bulb, the one pictured is included. The barndoors that come with this piece are a later, non-original addition, chosen to complete the look and function, and they lift off easily if you prefer the spotlight's cleaner lines on its own.

Suited to collectors of theatrical and film lighting history, interior designers looking for a bold, fully adjustable statement piece, and anyone furnishing a loft, studio, retail space, or living room who wants real stage presence with genuine mechanical history behind it.