Italux Altera pendant light black, smoked glass, E27, PND-3219-1-BK-SG

Altera is a single-light pendant with a shade of smoked grey glass formed into irregular, overlapping blocks. The shade hangs on a black cable from a round black ceiling cup, and the luminaire's metal parts carry the same black finish.

How big it is and how it hangs

The shade alone measures 14 × 14 cm and is 39 cm tall — a narrow upright cylinder rather than a wide bowl, so it lights a small patch of the surface below it. With its cable the whole fitting reaches 112 cm below the ceiling.

That figure is an upper limit: over a table the bottom edge of the shade usually sits 70–80 cm above the top, so before buying it is worth subtracting the table height and those 70–80 cm from your own ceiling height and checking that the result fits inside 112 cm. A single light of this diameter works best over one specific spot — beside an armchair, next to a bed, in a hallway — or in a group of several over a longer surface.

What lamp it needs

The fitting has one E27 lampholder and arrives without a lamp. The manufacturer gives a maximum of 40 W per holder — a ceiling that must not be exceeded, not the luminaire's consumption — and allows both a classic incandescent lamp and LED, so colour and brightness are chosen by you.

The shade is translucent and its inside is visible from the side, so the shape and look of the lamp matter here: a decorative lamp with a visible filament becomes part of the fitting rather than a hidden component. The light runs on 220–240 V and connects to the ceiling outlet under the cup.

Build and the rest of the family

The shade is glass; body, ceiling cup and bracket are a metal alloy in a black finish. The fitting is rated IP20, so it is intended for dry interiors only, and the manufacturer gives a two-year warranty.

Italux also lists the same shade as a three-light version under the code PND-3219-3A-BK-SG, and the Altera family includes a variant in amber glass with a bronze-coloured body. The code of this one — PND-3219-1-BK-SG — ends with the markings for the black body and the smoked glass.