Cini Boeri Abat Jour

Had Cini Boeri been a man, the Milanese architect and furniture designer, who died in 2020 at age 96, might be regarded today on par with such visionaries of the mid-20th century as Gio Ponti or Marco Zanuso. She worked with both. Although she’s well known and deeply respected in Italy, her renown elsewhere has been more akin to a cult following.

“I admire the work she did across architecture, interiors and furniture,” designer Faye Toogood says of Boeri’s impact. “She practiced architecture during a time when it was considered that women were too fragile to work outside.”

Boeri was one of very few women of her era to graduate from Milan Polytechnic with an architecture degree, which she did in 1951. Her illustrious career hinged on the strict economy of her designs and limited palette of materials. For example, her innovative 1971 Serpentone sofa for Arflex was crafted from just one material, polyurethane foam, and sold by the meter. Her ingenious 1987 Ghost chair for Fiam was cut from a single sheet of thick glass.

But in Boeri’s earlier days, her pieces displayed a more youthful exuberance. The circa 1968 Cubotto cabinet, produced in small numbers by Arflex, is an elegantly irregular arrangement of eight drawers of varying dimensions. The wooden cube, two feet square, was finished in laminate — in vivid orange, blue, sand or white — with color-coordinated casters and handles of black-enameled brass. Its design reflects a Space Age interest in flexible, space-saving, multiuse furnishings.

“It’s a very clean piece of design,” says Kaisha Davierwalla, owner and founder of Vaspaar Italy. “Even with its strong, square lines, somehow the vibrant colors and asymmetry have the feel of a feminine touch.”

Find vintage Cini Boeri seating, lighting and tables 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.