Frederick Cooper Pharmacy Lamp

In the early 20th century, a Chicago artist named Frederick Cooper found himself captivated by home lighting and electric lamps, which were only common in approximately half of American households during the mid-1920s. Cooper, whose primary media were sculpture and painting, began to design stately, modern table lamps that mirrored the grandeur of the burgeoning architecture in the Windy City.

Cooper accrued some notoriety as a forward-looking lamp designer who combined materials like brass, ceramics, glass and wood to create exquisitely crafted lamps, particularly at a time when the striking chrome finishes and sharp geometric angles of Art Deco lighting had become immensely popular.

The Frederick Cooper Lamp Company was eventually sold to Benjamin Markle and Russian immigrant Leo Gershanov. Under their stewardship after the Second World War, the manufacturer flourished in Chicago and the local lighting artisans at Stiffel gained a formidable competitor. The timing was particularly ripe — the demand for table lamps to furnish new houses exploded, and the company built on Cooper’s artistic reputation and his signature styles.

Lighting designers at Frederick Cooper innovated in the years that followed, integrating alluring materials like glazed ceramics, painted porcelain, marble and jade. Apart from the classic Art Deco designs that defined the studio’s work in its early days, the company’s craftsmen experimented with Asian-inspired designs and produced floor lamps, wall lights, modernist chandeliers and other fixtures in varying furniture styles such as Neoclassical, Hollywood Regency and Empire.

Now owned by Wildwood, the Frederick Cooper Lamp Company has collaborated with many high-profile designers such as Larry Laslo, Mario Buatta and others on a range of lighting projects.

Find an extraordinary collection of Frederick Cooper floor lamps, table lamps and other fixtures on 1stDibs.

The modern floor lamp is an evolution of torchères — tall floor candelabras that originated in France as a revolutionary development in lighting homes toward the end of the 17th century. Owing to the advent of electricity and the introduction of new materials as a part of lighting design, floor lamps have taken on new forms and configurations over the years. 

In the early 1920s, Art Deco lighting artisans worked with dark woods and modern metals, introducing unique designs that still inspire the look of modern floor lamps developed by contemporary firms such as Luxxu. 

Popular mid-century floor lamps include everything from the enchanting fixtures by the Italian lighting artisans at Stilnovo to the distinctly functional Grasshopper floor lamp created by Scandinavian design pioneer Greta Magnusson-Grossman to the Paracarro floor lamp by the Venetian master glass workers at Mazzega. Among the more celebrated names in mid-century lighting design are Milanese innovators Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, who, along with their eldest brother, Livio, worked for their own firm as architects and designers. While Livio departed the practice in 1952, Achille and Pier Giacomo would go on to design the Arco floor lamp, the Toio floor lamp and more for legendary lighting brands such as FLOS. 

Today’s upscale interiors frequently integrate the otherworldly custom lighting solutions created by a wealth of contemporary firms and designers such as Spain’s Masquespacio, whose Wink floor lamps integrate gold as well as fabric fringes. 

Visual artists and industrial designers have a penchant for floor lamps, possibly because they’re so often a clever marriage of design and the functions of lighting. A good floor lamp can change the mood of any room while adding a touch of elegance to your entire space. Find yours now on 1stDibs.