Napako 1188

Napako was initially established in 1919 in Prague with the purpose of helping private companies with metalworking solutions for building projects. The Czech manufacturer later pivoted to producing appliances and lighting, a change that yielded partnerships with esteemed designers such as electrician and furniture maker Josef Hurka and Miroslav Prokop between the 1930s and 1970s. 

Napako’s chrome-plated desk lamps and flush mounts were often characterized by the influence of the Bauhaus, a progressive German design school that promoted a union of art, craft and technology. Many of the brand’s interesting lighting fixtures incorporated milk glass and opaline glass and later featured venturesome forms and lacquered metal housings in lively Pop art colors. Today vintage Napako table lamps, floor lamps and chandeliers are rare and highly collectible works of Space Age and mid-century modernist ingenuity.

Hurka and Helena Frantová were the superstars on Napako’s roster of designers. Initially an electrical appliance designer, Hurka changed course to work on lighting design after Napako discontinued its production of appliances. 

For much of the 20th century, industrial and furniture designers in the Eastern Bloc created their work in near anonymity — including in the former Czechoslovakia, where communist ideologies ran counter to capitalist ideas like branding and acclaim.

Although for a brief and shining moment, in 1958, the country’s designers gained global renown when Czechoslovakia won best national pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, their artistry was soon shrouded again behind the Iron Curtain.

Hurka’s table lamps for Napako were presented as part of the prize-winning Czech Pavilion at the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, which was the first World’s Fair after World War II. Frantová frequently created torch-shaped table lamps with spindly bodies in chromed steel or brass for the likes of Okolo as well as Napako.

On 1stDibs, find a collection of Napako lighting.

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.