Dagmar Mombach

German designer Ingo Maurer (1932–2019) was known as a “poet of light” for how he artfully created lamps that married form and function, from bulbs that soared on goose-feather wings to chandeliers that suspended bursts of shattered tableware like a slow-motion explosion. One of his first lamps, a 1966 design that was merely called Bulb, nested a lightbulb inside a larger glass lightbulb shape, drawing on his connection to German art traditions of reductive forms as well as Pop art and the playful aesthetics of 1960s pop culture. The success of Bulb — its fans included American design icon Charles Eames — led to the founding of his own company to produce this provocative fixture as well as other fantastic lighting designs.

Born on the island of Reichenau in Lake Constance in southern Germany, Maurer apprenticed at a newspaper before moving to the United States in 1960. In New York and California, Maurer initially worked as a graphic designer for IBM and elsewhere before returning to Germany with his then-wife, designer Dorothee Becker, in 1963. The experience that Maurer gained in typography and bold forms was regularly expressed in the lamps crafted by his company, which was called Design M before the name was changed to Ingo Maurer GmbH. The lighting manufacturer is still based in Munich.

Some of Maurer’s pieces were minimal, such as a ceramic table lamp in 1996 he called Broken Egg, which radiated light from a fissure in an oblong shape, while others were monumental, such as the designer’s last completed installation — a colossal chandelier composed of over 3,000 silver-plated leaves — in Munich’s Residenztheater. Maurer was always at the forefront of lighting innovations, exploring holograms, LEDs and OLEDs in his projects. Through his company, the venturesome Maurer also promoted inventive new designers, including Moritz Waldemeyer, whose My New Flame (2012) imagined a futuristic candle with LEDs.

Ingo Maurer GmbH continues to produce the late designer’s distinctive table lamps, chandeliers and other fixtures, including the imaginative Bulb that started it all.

Find a collection of Ingo Maurer lighting designs on 1stDibs.

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.