Josef Hoffman designed this stylized Table Lamp in 1904, when artificial light sources were shifting from gas to electric, which challenged designers to innovate in accordance with the new technology.
Rather than putting shades around the bulbs, Hoffmann left the light source exposed. The suspended glass spheres echo the bulbs shape and draw further attention to the new technology as they catch and reflect the electric light. The lamp was manufactured by Konrad Schindel of Denmark.
Photographed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan.
Foscarini, a leading Italian design and manufacturing company that produces masterful and innovative decorative lighting, is one of my favorite showrooms to visit in NYC’s SoHo design district. The company was founded in 1981 on the famous glass-blowing island of Murano in Venice, Italy, and their award-winning and iconic designs are the results of passionate collaboration with world-class designers. To create light is the central vision of each Foscarini project, never losing sight of the connection between the form and the function of illumination.
One of my favorite designs of theirs is the Lumiere Table Lamp, which was created for Foscarini by Milanese architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni. The Lumiere has an elegant gradation of tones in the glossy finish of its blown glass shade contrasted with the finish of the characteristic tripod base. This light is both beautiful and beautifully crafted. It has a elegant look and emits a soft light. Each of the elements, the glass shade and the metal stand, are well made and have a nice weight — which, with a table lamp, is a desirable. This is a classic lamp that will complement the decor of virtually any room. The blown glass shade comes in your choice of colors that include Polished Cherry (shown), Polished Turquoise and Warm White, with metal-base finishes of Champagne (shown), Aluminum, and Black Chrome. The Lumierecomes in small and large sizes, with this small size lamp retailing for $727.00.
In 1964, Italian designer Giancarlo Mattioli, guided by the era’s enthusiasm for space-age forms and materials, experimented with then-newly-available thermoplastic resins. The result was this Nesso Table Lamp, an object represented in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Invoking an otherworldly mushroom, the Nesso Lamp’s eye-catching shape provides diffused incandescent light. Produced by Artemide, the lamp is available for purchased from the MoMA Design Store (online only) at This Link.
Best known as an Art Deco metalsmith, Edgar Brandt (1880 – 1960) studied metal working at the Ecole nationale professionnelle of Vierzon and established himself in Paris in 1902. There, he began his blacksmith career; his creations first being marked by the Art nouveau aesthetic. Thanks to his extraordinary technical mastery and ingenuity, he received overwhelming numbers of commissions.
In 1925, Brandt opened an art gallery, where he exhibited pieces created by his contemporaries, as well as some of his works and collaborations, such as the ones with Daum or Lalique. This Modernist Table Lamp (1931) features an S-shaped body on a circular base, in nickel-plated metal, with 2 deep-etched glass cylinders. At 8.5-inches wide at the base, and 12.5-inches high, each lamp is stamped (at the base) with the artist’s Signature: E. Brandt, and Daum Nancy France, for the crystal studio and its location, is etched on the glass. Price point is unknown.
The MGM Table Lamp was designed by ‘radical’ Italian designer Lapo Binazzi and manufactured from 1960 to 1969. The MGM name comes from the lamp’s resemblance to the iconic Movie Studio Logo.
