Peter Bowles was born in Oxford in 1957. He was introduced to the lighting business from a young age, as his father – who was owner of iconic 1960s lighting retailer Cosmo Designs – employed Peter on his stand at the Harrogate Lighting Fair at the age of 13.
Childhood visits to his father’s manufacturing facilities opened Peter’s eyes to the clean lines of traditional factory fittings and the functionality of mid-century style. Although it was when Peter travelled to France in 1976 and worked on the machines at a cutlery manufacturer that his passion for what he calls the “crash, bang, whallop of production” was ignited.
In 1977 Bowles returned to England and opened a factory in Sheffield that produced a million pieces of own-designed cookware a year. However, feeling unsatisfied by the limitations of cutlery, in 1990, he went back to his roots of lighting and founded Original BTC in Oxford. That same year he designed the classic Hector Light, which is as popular today, with its retro bone china shade and cotton braided flex, as it ever has been.
His lamps are mostly inspired on traditional factory fittings and iconic 1930s/40s design. For example, the Cobb Rise and Fall pendant is based on a Dutch cobblers light, the Titan pendant is based on an original 1940s factory design and the Phane is inspired by a light on the Paris Metro.
Today, three UK production facilities are dedicated to constructing the lights. The aluminium shades and bases are hand-spun from sheet metal in the heart of the country’s metal-working industry and sent to Oxford for assembly, while bone china shades are hand-cast in Stoke-on-Trent.