Rummage sales, trunk sales, second-hand stores - your trading reporter loves ‘em. Junk is fun! Browsing, exploring, and digging for those rare treasures among 99 percent of absolute rubbish. And patience often pays off, as university secretary Nicole Ummelen knows like no other. Not that she collects each and every musty vintage item she can get her hands on, “but I enjoy spending my Sunday morning in Tongeren”, she admits, referring to the renowned antiques-cum-flea market in the Flemish town just under Maastricht.

Patience, then. When in December Joep Huiskamp, whom she shares a hallway with, donated the Philips Pavilion Package she was there like lightning. Yes, please! “It’s a quite amazing pavilion that has originated from the extraordinary collaboration between composer and architect.” But if she’s expecting to trade the beautiful DIY kit for an old TU/e Christmas gift basket plate that Ummelen won at a Gaslab music quiz, and which is supposedly signed by singers Nick and Simon, she’s got another thing coming.

A tad impatiently, yet hopefully, we waited for weeks. Ummelen was offered the kit by several other parties, but the secretary just couldn’t accept them as she had entered into an trading agreement with Cursor already.

But at long last, there it was: The E-mail. Attached, a photo of a desk lamp adorned with the logo of the former Technische Hogeschool Eindhoven (TH) on its base. True campus heritage saved from the Hoofdgebouw by Jo Verstappen, who coordinated the emptying of the building. He also managed to save an assortment of other vintage accessories and furniture items from the dumpster. A set of slim lights from the eight floor of the Hoofdgebouw can now be found in the Executive Board room in MetaForum.  Not super vintage, but definitely practical. “Lighting in the boardroom wasn’t great for video conferencing, so we put those lights up.”

The desk lamp was a familiar object to Ummelen: after Christmas break she found an updated version on her desk. It was a gift from MetaForum’s building manager Johan Lauwers, who had patiently and lovingly sanded, degreased, and spray-painted it matte black and Ferrari red. Secretary Toos Rikmans had informed him of Ummelen’s search for a cute desk lamp to brighten up her new office at MetaForum instead of that “overpowering fluorescent light, which I often switch off”.

The original version of the desk lamp is a white gray, with the TH logo on its base, and possibly decorated with decade-old coffee stains from an aloof professor. After asking around, we’ve established the lamp must date back to the late seventies or early eighties. And its robust look is very TU/e, according to Ummelen.

The lamps weren’t rare or anything, says Lauwers. “Many were made, but you can’t imagine how many have met their demise in the dumpster over the years. Just like those lovely chairs, by the way. Some of them are still in the Pavilion today. They would have made good money at an online auction.” While we’re at it: one of the lamps is offered at marktplaats.nl for a little under fifty euros.

Who’s in for trading this special lamp? Email us with your trading offer, and we’ll come by. Ummelen can’t wait to start on her new DIT kit. “They say it’s a challenge to assemble. Supposedly you need extremely fine motor skills. But I’ll have a go nonetheless.”