Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Early 20th Century French Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Aluminum, Iron, Chrome
Early 20th Century British Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Steel
Mid-19th Century British Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal, Iron
1920s English Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Steel, Enamel
Early 20th Century British Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Aluminum
1920s English Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Steel
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1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
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1940s Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
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1940s German Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
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Late 20th Century Korean Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
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1970s Polish Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Iron, Steel
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal, Brass
2010s American Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Steel
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Brass, Steel, Enamel
Mid-20th Century Norwegian Scandinavian Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Aluminum, Chrome
Early 20th Century Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal
1950s French Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Chrome
1950s English Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Chrome
21st Century and Contemporary American Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Chrome
1970s English Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Aluminum, Chrome
1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Marble, Brass
1950s French Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal
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Early 20th Century English Bauhaus Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal, Enamel, Iron
Early 20th Century French Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Aluminum, Iron
Late 19th Century British Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Early 20th Century British Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Steel
Early 20th Century English Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal
1910s British Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Brass
Early 20th Century British Industrial Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Steel, Iron
Early 20th Century British Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal, Iron
Mid-19th Century English Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Early 20th Century British Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Enamel
Early 20th Century English Art Deco Antique Anglepoise Desk Lamp
Metal, Iron
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.
- 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022British designer George Carwardine designed the Anglepoise desk lamp. Before creating the light fixture, he worked as an engineer designing automobile suspension systems. The first Anglepoise lamps debuted in 1931. You can find a variety of Anglepoise desk lamps on 1stDibs.
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