One important aspect of the double cylinder lamp is its extreme rareness. There are only three lamps known, worldwide. One small version in the Bauhaus Archiv in Berlin, one large version in a German private collection (Gerald Fingerle) and mine (small version). I talked to both owners personally and they confirmed, that there are no other lamps known. Neither in private collections nor in museums. It has never been on the market, before (both the museum as well as Mr. Fingerle have gotten their lamp, privately), even though, the Kandem exhibition catalogue has been out for 6 years now and many dealers, collectors and connoisseurs would recognize this lamp, today. Also the internet and Ebay did not let these lamps occure.
The Museum of Modern Art in New York already tried to get one of these lamps directly from Marianne Brandt (she probably never had one, though), 50 years ago, in 1957. (Request in a personal letter by Greta Daniel, MOMA’s curator of design, back then to Marianne Brandt. Private collection.) Until today the MOMA does not own such a lamp.
This offer could possibly be the only opportunity ever to gain a double cylinder hanging lamp.
 
There are three main reasons, for the rarity of this object:
 
    1. The lamp was quite expensive and rather a luxury piece, than a mass product. It cost 59 Marks back then, more than a weeks salary of a worker (The other Kandem lamps only cost between 13 and 17,50 Marks and thousands had been sold). Therefore probably not so many had been produced and sold. Exact numbers are not known, though.

    2. The lamp is not so easy to handle and quite fragile. Many lamps probably got broke during the war or due to careless handling. Maybe people also decided not to buy, because of that fragility.

    3. The Kandem lamps were never sold as “Bauhaus lamps”. People did not know, that they were purchasing a special lamp, designed by the Bauhaus, which later on would become a valuable piece. This lamp looks so simple and straight in it’s design, that people never thought about it as a possible collector’s object. If the lamp’s glass had survived the time, people certainly would have thrown it away, during the last seven decades, when renovating or exchanging the interior.
 
Until today, the lamps beauty due to its clear design, would only be recognized by those, who developed an eye. In my opinion even today, most ordinary people would throw this lamp away, when for example cleaning the attic. That’s why the double cylinder hanging lamp is so rare and almost none had survived.