ADB BU.5 Belgium Studio Spotlight Floor Lamp | 1960s Hollywood Spotlight on Berlebach Mulda Photography Tripod

A 1960s Belgian studio spotlight by ADB, ETS A. Backer S.A., mounted on a genuine Berlebach Mulda wood photography tripod and rebuilt as a fully adjustable floor lamp. Its character comes from decades of real use, not from a workshop trying to imitate it.

At a glance

The story

ADB was founded in Belgium in 1920 by Adrien De Backer, whose initials gave the company its name. The business started out making rheostats, electrical resistors used to control current in laboratory equipment, a world away from theatre. It was the application of that same technology to stage lighting that changed the company's direction: ADB built the first light dimmer for the city theatre in Mechelen, a piece of equipment that reportedly stayed in service for more than forty years. From there, ADB grew into one of Europe's leading names in theatre, television, and studio lighting, staying a family-run business until 1987, when it was acquired by Siemens. The brand still exists today, now part of the Clay Paky group, and its lighting has been used in some of the world's most prestigious theatres.

This BU.5 spotlight dates from the 1960s, a period when ADB fixtures were standard equipment in Belgian theatres, television studios, and film sets. It still wears its original hammered grey paint, worn honestly through decades of real use rather than restored to a false shine, which is exactly what gives it its character. The original beam-adjustment knob still works, letting the beam shift from a tight spot to a soft flood exactly as it did on set.

We mounted it on a genuine Berlebach Mulda tripod, a piece of German craftsmanship with its own long history. Berlebach was founded in 1898 in Mulda, Saxony, and is Germany's oldest tripod manufacturer still in operation. Its tripods are built from native ash wood, prized for over a century for damping vibration far better than metal, a quality that made Berlebach tripods a favourite among photographers, filmmakers, and surveyors alike. The company was nationalised during the GDR era, supplying tripods across the entire Eastern Bloc, before being privately rebuilt from near-bankruptcy in 1993 by a former employee who bought back the name, the land, and the machinery. It remains a specialist, family-scale manufacturer to this day, exporting to more than forty countries.

The spotlight has been fully rewired for safe home or studio use, fitted with an E27 socket, a switch, a plug, and roughly 3 metres of cable, so it accepts any standard LED or incandescent bulb. The one shown in the photographs is included. The barndoors included with this piece are not original to the fixture, they have been added for both function and look, and can be easily removed if you prefer the cleaner lines of the spotlight 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 Hollywood-style presence with genuine mechanical history behind it.