> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.unknowndivide.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Apparatus Act V: Afsaneh Turns a Persian Fable Into Brass, Glass and Light - URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/apparatus-act-v-afsaneh/ - Published: 2026-10-07T17:50:17.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-07T17:50:18.000Z - Description: Seeds, flowers, winding brass and a $108,000 table. The New York studio's first full collection in years tells a Persian fable named for Gabriel Hendifar's mother, and the smaller pieces are already selling out. - Author: unknowndivide staff - Tags: Design Apparatus does not drop products. It stages worlds. The New York design studio has unveiled [*Act V: Afsaneh*](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/pages/act-v?ref=unknowndivide.com), a new collection of lighting, tables, vessels and incense built around Persian myth, and it is live on the Apparatus site now. Afsaneh is the Persian word for fable. It is also the name of the mother of Gabriel Hendifar, the studio's artistic director and CEO. For a studio whose catalog is split into "Acts" and "Forewords," a new Act is the big event. Dezeen reports this is the first full Apparatus collection since 2019, and you can feel the time that went into it. ## The story behind it Hendifar opens the collection with a letter to "Dear Dreamer" about drawing curves "over and over with my pen until forms emerged from the ether." The theme is cycles: "Creation and destruction. The separation from self, and the return." The seed becomes a flower, the flower gathers knowledge, and everyone meets at the table. He casts the campaign as a temple in the sky, staged through the movement language of Martha Graham, the American choreographer often called the mother of modern dance. Every series is named in Persian for a step in that story. That is the fun part. Read the names in order and the collection tells its own fable. ## The pieces **Esfand (the seed).** Esfand is the twelfth month of the Persian calendar, and in Persian lore it is also the seed that protects you from the evil eye. Here it becomes a seed-shaped [Surface](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/products/pip-esfand-surface?ref=unknowndivide.com) light with a cast glass lens set in a cast aluminum shell, wrapped in Chinese lacquer in shades Apparatus calls milk, honey, pomegranate, sky, dusk and night. It is about 13.5 inches tall and starts at $3,300. **Gol (the flower).** Gol means flower, and the [Gol pendant](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/products/pip-gol-pendant?ref=unknowndivide.com) is the showstopper: fiberglass petal shades around a cast glass "seed," with botanical structures and Fortuny among its listed references. The small version is 9.25 inches across and starts at $6,400\. The large is just over 40 inches wide, weighs about 87 pounds and starts at $28,000. **Rahvi (the storyteller).** Water-formed brass bends into a winding line that carries glowing cast glass orbs, with rings in seven semi-precious stones, including lapis lazuli, tiger's eye and black onyx, threaded on as amulets. Apparatus names jeweler Elsa Peretti and couturier Azzedine Alaïa as references. A single [Rahvi orb pendant](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/products/pip-rahvi-orb-pendant-small?ref=unknowndivide.com) starts at $3,200, while the [Rahvi 6 installation](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/products/pip-rahvi-6-installation-h?ref=unknowndivide.com) stretches more than seven feet and starts at $72,000. **Jahaan (the cosmos).** This is the gathering point, a family of tables inspired by tombak drums, globes, telescopes and fountains. The [Jahaan dining table](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/products/pip-jahaan-dining-table?ref=unknowndivide.com) is six feet across in lacquer, cast glass and brass, and it costs $108,000, with a lead time of about 26 to 28 weeks. ## What you can actually buy Apparatus builds its pieces in its own New York factory, and Act V lighting comes with lead times of roughly 16 to 18 weeks. The smaller objects were the quickest way in, and they went fast. When we checked Wednesday afternoon, the $800 Esfand smoking vessel, the $1,600 Esfand vessel, the $1,800 Jahaan smoking vessel and the $6,000 Jahaan smoking table were all listed as sold out. The real entry point is still in stock: the [Act V incense](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/products/incense-act-v?ref=unknowndivide.com), developed with Cinnamon Projects and hand finished in New York. It blends damask rose, frankincense and oud, and Apparatus lists its references as "Persian gardens," "moonlight" and "red nails on piano keys." You get 25 sticks in a glass tube and gift box, each burning about 25 minutes, for $40. ## Our call Apparatus has always sold mood as much as metal, and Act V is the most personal version of that yet. The prices put most of it in collector and interior designer territory, but the ideas are worth a look even if you are only buying the incense. If you want a light with a story you can actually afford, start with our guide to the [best design lamps](https://www.unknowndivide.com/best-design-lamps/), or see how Louis Poulsen brought back Poul Henningsen's [PH 1/1 Piano lamp](https://www.unknowndivide.com/louis-poulsen-ph-1-1-piano-table-lamp/). For smaller pieces with the same spirit, browse our [gifts for design lovers](https://www.unknowndivide.com/gifts-for-design-lovers/). [Explore Act V at Apparatus](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/pages/act-v?ref=unknowndivide.com) · [About the studio](https://www.apparatusstudio.com/pages/about?ref=unknowndivide.com)