Robert Dudley Best

UK

British designer Robert Dudley Best was born in 1892. Throughout his childhood, he spends a lot of time in the factory lamps founded fifty years earlier by his grandfather, Robert Best.

Persuaded to join the family business, Robert Dudley Best left to study industrial design with a specialization in lighting, Düsseldorf and then in Paris.

He discovered the Bauhaus movement, rebelling against traditional concepts. It is in this spirit that drew the first sketches of the one that will carry his name forever: the Bestlite.
In 1929 he returned to England, full of ideas on how his new creations could revolutionize the family business. But his father - who has meanwhile taken over the management of the factory - was more reserved on the commissioning of the lamp, saying it does not agree with the existing collection in style rather loaded, and has so no chance of finding a client.

However, the lamp went into production in 1930, not for the individual customers but for the industry that retains the functional aspect.
But soon after an article in the prestigious Journal Architect magazine, the English architectural community Bestlite discovered and proclaimed as the first revelation of Bauhaus in England. Winston Churchill would also be conquered by Bestlite. Not happy to leave it in his Whitehall office, he also took it on his numerous international travels. Thus the lamp was revealed to the world.

Robert Dudley Best continued to expand the collection to the end of the 30s Today, ten of its lamps are in production.

Robert Dudley Best took over the empire after the death of his father and in 1979 passed the reins to his son John Best, five years before his death in 1984.