LITA Theatre Spotlight Floor Lamp | 1950s French Fresnel Projector on Rare Original Rolling Tripod

A beautiful vintage French theatre spotlight by Lita, still standing on the rolling tripod it was originally built with, a genuinely rare combination. Most Lita projectors that survive today have long since parted ways with their original stand. This one hasn't.

At a glance

The story

Lita was a French manufacturer of lighting and spotlights, producing fixtures for theatres, photography studios, film and television sets, and shop windows through the mid-twentieth century, alongside a line of garden and interior lighting. The company's reputation in French design extended beyond the stage: in the 1950s, Lita also produced decorative wall lights designed by Jacques Biny, one of postwar France's notable lighting designers, a sign of how seriously the brand was taken within French lighting circles at the time. Lita continued independently until 1974, when it was acquired by La Compagnie des Lampes together with fellow manufacturer Projelux. La Compagnie des Lampes was later renamed Mazda, and through a long chain of mergers, most recently with Philips in 2002, some of that lineage continues in French lighting retail today.

Spotlights like this one belonged to a category of compact Fresnel projectors used wherever a small, professional, directional light source was needed: minor stage productions, photography studios, film and television sets, and shop window displays all relied on fixtures of this size and type. Their compact housing made them easier to position precisely than the larger stage units, while still using the same Fresnel lens technology, a design adapted from lighthouse optics, that let a single fixture throw either a tight spot or a soft flood.

This particular Lita carries the model's signature feature: a distinctive crest-shaped fin rising from the top of its streamlined, shell-like housing, a detail collectors specifically look for and one that makes an original Lita projector instantly recognisable. The beam still adjusts from spot to flood using its original knob, exactly as a lighting technician would have used it seventy years ago.

What makes this particular example genuinely uncommon is the tripod. It is Lita's own original rolling stand, built on wheels so the spotlight could be repositioned quickly during a production without needing to be unmounted and remounted elsewhere. Most surviving Lita spotlights are found on generic or replacement stands; finding the lamp still paired with its matching rolling tripod is a rare survival.

The spotlight has been rewired for safety, fitted with roughly 3 metres of electrical cord and an EU plug, and keeps its original E27 fitting and its original light switch, mounted directly on the body. It accepts any standard LED or incandescent bulb, the one shown in the photographs is included.

Suited to collectors of French theatrical and cinema lighting history, interior designers looking for a rare, complete, and fully mobile statement piece, and anyone furnishing a loft, studio, or living space who wants both the lamp and the stand it was actually born with.