In May 2024, I discovered these older PHILIPS NVF 250 lights in France. These fixtures for 250W and 400W MV-lamps were introduced in the second half of the 1950s.
The owner of the garage in Le-Cannet-des-Maures was persuaded to switch on the lights for about 10 minutes so that I could take photos.
One fixture is fitted with a 250W MV lamp and one fixture is fitted with a 500W SBMV lamp.










Some technical informations about this fixtures:

Page 67 of the PHILIPS catalog eclairage (F) shows the variants from 80W to 400W. There were two different sized fixtures.


Source: PHILIPS catalog eclairage, page 67, France 1965

Hi Olav

Thanks for photographing these beauties. Such a nice scene with once well known street lights. Too sad that most such installations are gone now. France is now countrywide speeding up with replacing all old HID tech with LED. However there is a small region to the border to Switzerland which still has some variety of old “bowl less” fixtures still in use but most have now LED bulbs in it. In the next time when I’m able to spend some time in my chalet I’ll go for a ride over the border to see what gems I’ll find still up on the streets.

Hello Michael, I can (unfortunately) confirm your observations in France.
There is still some HID lighting with HPS and MH lamps, but you can really see the radical change.
Even in small villages, LED has very often found its way in.


Meanwhile, it's not the color of the light from these LED lights that bothers me, but the often miserable design of these lights.