Quan Yin Wood Lamp
Antique 19th Century Table Lamps
Wood
Early 20th Century American Art Deco Table Lamps
Metal
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Wood
People Also Browsed
Mid-20th Century Chinese Qing Ceramics
Porcelain
Early 20th Century French Art Deco Tables
Metal, Iron
Vintage 1950s American Hollywood Regency Table Lamps
Plaster
Antique 1880s English Table Lamps
Stoneware
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Chinese Export Table Lamps
Ceramic
Mid-20th Century English Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Wood
Early 20th Century Chinese Chinese Export Sculptures and Carvings
Terracotta
Vintage 1950s French Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Porcelain
Antique Mid-19th Century Chinese Qing Sculptures and Carvings
Wood, Paint
Early 20th Century English Empire Table Lamps
Metal
Antique Early 1900s Italian Figurative Sculptures
Alabaster
Late 20th Century Japanese Chinoiserie Figurative Sculptures
Porcelain
Vintage 1930s French Art Deco Table Lamps
Marble, Spelter
Antique Late 19th Century Chinese Mounted Objects
Marble
Antique 1880s Chinese Chinese Export Table Lamps
Wood
Mid-20th Century American Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Brass
Recent Sales
Antique 19th Century Chinese Table Lamps
Metal
Vintage 1960s Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Resin, Wood
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Mid-20th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Alabaster, Metal
Vintage 1940s American Table Lamps
Brass
Vintage 1950s American Table Lamps
Porcelain, Wood
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal
Mid-20th Century Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Alabaster, Metal
20th Century Table Lamps
Wood, Glass
Vintage 1950s Chinese Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Porcelain
Vintage 1950s American Table Lamps
Gold Leaf
Vintage 1960s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Antique 19th Century Chinese Qing Table Lamps
Brass
Antique 19th Century Chinese Table Lamps
Wood
Vintage 1940s American Table Lamps
Brass
Vintage 1960s American Table Lamps
Metal
Vintage 1960s Japanese Table Lamps
Porcelain, Wood
Vintage 1950s American Table Lamps
Composition, Gold
Antique Mid-19th Century American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Plaster, Wood
Vintage 1950s American Table Lamps
Brass
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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Paavo Tynell’s Snowflake Chandelier Warms Up Any Room
This circa 1950 piece by the legendary Finnish lighting designer spent the past several decades in a family's home in Michigan.
NASA Parachutes Inspired Lighting Designer Bec Brittain’s New Collection
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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Hand-blown glass makes the Italian fixture glow like dew-covered leaves in the sun.