Labarge Lamp

Renowned in the world of interior design, American furniture manufacturer LaBarge specializes in elegant, handcrafted mirrors and glass top tables that complement a multitude of decorating styles. Its pieces draw on the timelessness of mid-century modernism, the glamour of Hollywood Regency, traditional European classicism and more. 

While the company is based in North Carolina, LaBarge has long looked to cultures all over the world for inspiration, relying on techniques such as carving, gilding, molding and hand-rubbed finishing to create their distinctive contemporary designs and antique reproductions.

LaBarge’s celebrated furnishings include sunburst mirrors outfitted with heavy brass detailing or Italian-style giltwood wall mirrors that feature hand-painted birds adorning the glass panels or chinoiserie patterns that dot the frames. Vintage LaBarge coffee tables, with their unconventional shapes, sleek glass tops and signature hooved feet in brass, are always in demand, while the brand’s dramatic, Louis XVI-style console tables with black lacquer and intricate gilding make a statement in any space. 

LaBarge Mirrors Inc. was founded in 1962 by Chicago-born furniture salesman William LaBarge Sr., who purchased the residential mirror division of Holland, Michigan’s Donnelly Mirrors — formerly Donnelly-Kelley Glass Company.

LaBarge’s founder, who had moved to Michigan in the late 1940s, sold the company to Masco Corporation in 1987, which had entered the furniture manufacturing business earlier in the decade and had by then owned widely loved brands Henredon, Drexel and others. A company called Heritage Home Group, LLC purchased LaBarge and a range of other brands in 2013.

In 2015, furniture designer Susan Hable created a new line of mirrors for LaBarge inspired by the likes of Italian architect Gio Ponti and modernists such as Belgian sculptor Georges Pelletier and German-American designer Karl Springer. North Carolina’s Rock House Farm (RHF Investments) acquired LaBarge and other manufacturers from Heritage Home Group in 2018.

Find vintage LaBarge mirrors, tables and other furniture on 1stDibs.

The California-born style of Hollywood Regency, also known as Regency Moderne, emerged during the Golden Era of cinema from the 1920s to the ’50s. Decadent and bold, vintage Hollywood Regency furniture and interiors playfully mix colors like jewel tones and hot pinks with lacquered walls, gilded accents, mirrored surfaces and metallic finishes for maximalist spaces.

Although it involved elements of the coinciding Art Deco movement, such as a preference for clean lines, Hollywood Regency was much more opulent, inspired by glamorous movie stars and the lavish set designs for films being made in Tinseltown. Furniture designers associated with the style embraced an eclectic range of influences, including throwbacks to previous styles of grandeur, such as Rococo, neoclassical and chinoiserie, as well as materials, from bamboo dining chairs to lucite bar carts to sunburst mirrors made from gilded resin. Hollywood Regency end tables, floor lamps, chandeliers and other pieces tended to be small-scale, fitting into an overall design rather than serving as a focal point.

Interior decorator Dorothy Draper led the shaping of the Hollywood Regency style and also designed iconic pieces like the España chest, which was manufactured by Henredon. Virginia native William “Billy” Haines, a furniture designer who started as an actor, contrasted hand-painted wallpaper with Chinese ceramics and Chippendale chairs, while architect John Elgin Woolf imbued his Beverly Hills designs with theatrical details. Paul Revere Williams, a trailblazing African-American architect, was pivotal in defining the look through his commercial projects, such as the 1940s Beverly Hills Hotel and bespoke homes that mixed everything from Louis XV paneling to Georgian architecture.

Find a collection of vintage Hollywood Regency bedroom furniture, tables, seating and other pieces 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.