Ingo Maurer, a German lighting designer who was Promethean in his delivery of illumination — fashioning lamps out of shattered crockery, scribbled memos, holograms, tea strainers and incandescent bulbs with feathered wings — died on Monday in Munich. He was 87.

His death, at a hospital, was announced by his company, Ingo Maurer GmbH , which said the cause was complications of a surgical procedure.

Mr. Maurer had a wonky fascination with technology that took nothing away from his reputation as a poet of light , as he was often described.

His first lamp, designed in 1966, was a large crystal bulb enclosing a smaller one. Called simply “Bulb” (his product names would become more fanciful), it won praise from the designer Charles Eames and in 1968 became part of the Museum of Modern Art’s collection in New York.