Chalkware Genie
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal
Late 20th Century American Art Deco Table Lamps
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Ceramic
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Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Dressers
Mahogany
Early 20th Century Austrian Figurative Sculptures
Onyx, Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile
Late 20th Century American French Provincial Commodes and Chests of Drawers
Oak
Antique Late 17th Century Japanese Japonisme Table Lamps
Porcelain
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Lounge Chairs
Fabric
20th Century American Figurative Sculptures
Plaster
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Animal Sculptures
Ceramic
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Daybeds
Metal
Antique 19th Century Japanese Late Victorian Ceramics
Ormolu
Late 20th Century American Chippendale Wardrobes and Armoires
Brass
Antique 19th Century French Grand Tour Desk Sets
Siena Marble, Brass, Bronze
Vintage 1970s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Plaster, String, Cotton
Vintage 1970s English Mid-Century Modern Sofas
Velvet, Rosewood
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Plaster
Finding the Right table-lamps for You
Well-crafted antique and vintage table lamps do more than provide light; the right fixture-and-table combination can add a focal point or creative element to any interior.
Proper table lamps have long been used for lighting our most intimate spaces. Perfect for lighting your nightstand or reading nook, table lamps play an integral role in styling an inviting room. In the years before electricity, lamps used oil. Today, a rewired 19th-century vintage lamp can still provide a touch of elegance for a study.
After industrial milestones such as mass production took hold in the Victorian era, various design movements sought to bring craftsmanship and innovation back to this indispensable household item. Lighting designers affiliated with Art Deco, which originated in the glamorous roaring ’20s, sought to celebrate modern life by fusing modern metals with dark woods and dazzling colors in the fixtures of the era. The geometric shapes and gilded details of vintage Art Deco table lamps provide an air of luxury and sophistication that never goes out of style.
After launching in 1934, Anglepoise lamps soon became a favorite among modernist architects and designers, who interpreted the fixture as “a machine for lighting,” just as Le Corbusier had reimagined the house as “a machine for living in.” The popular task light owed to a collaboration between a vehicle-suspension engineer by the name of George Carwardine and a West Midlands springs manufacturer, Herbert Terry & Sons.
Some mid-century modern table lamps, particularly those created by the likes of Joe Colombo and the legendary lighting artisans at Fontana Arte, bear all the provocative hallmarks associated with Space Age design. Sculptural and versatile, the Louis Poulsen table lamps of that period were revolutionary for their time and still seem innovative today.
If you are looking for something more contemporary, industrial table lamps are demonstrative of a newly chic style that isn’t afraid to pay homage to the past. They look particularly at home in any rustic loft space amid exposed brick and steel beams.
Before you buy a desk lamp or table lamp for your living room, consider your lighting needs. The Snoopy lamp, designed in 1967, or any other “banker’s lamp” (shorthand for the Emeralite desk lamps patented by H.G. McFaddin and Company), provides light at a downward angle that is perfect for writing, while the Fontana table lamp and the beloved Grasshopper lamp by Greta Magnusson-Grossman each yield a soft and even glow. Some table lamps require lampshades to be bought separately.
Whether it’s a classic antique Tiffany table lamp, a Murano glass table lamp or even a bold avant-garde fixture custom-made by a contemporary design firm, the right table lamp can completely transform a room. Find the right one for you on 1stDibs.
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This circa 1950 piece by the legendary Finnish lighting designer spent the past several decades in a family's home in Michigan.
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In "Paraciphers," now on view at Emma Scully Gallery in New York, Brittain introduces works that were more than a decade in the making.
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