Pair of Post Modern off White Ivory Ceramic Lamps on Lucite Bases, circa 1985
Located in Saint Louis, MO
Elegant pair of Post Modern ceramic lamps with channeled details set atop lucite bases. A great
Brass
Post Modern Studio Pottery Ceramic Lamp
Located in Brooklyn, NY
A post modern studio made ceramic lamp. Pillar shape silhouette with abstract splatter glaze. Two
Ceramic
$555Sale Price|20% Off
Post-Modern ceramic table lamp, Italy, 1980s
Located in SANT ADRIÀ DE BESÒS, ES
Cubist and Post-Modern style ceramic table lamp, Italy, 1980s. It has the shape of a tibor or white
Brass
$1,200 / set
Pair of Post-Modern Artichoke Table Lamps 1980s
By Laurel Lamp Company, Jonathan Adler
Located in San Diego, CA
Beautiful and sculptural set of ceramic artichoke lamps. Although post-modern in essence, these
Ceramic
Pair of Post Modern Table Lamps by Sunset
By Mutual Sunset Lamp Co.
Located in Berkeley, CA
Origin: USA Designer: Unknown Manufacturer: Sunset Lamp Corp. Era: 1987 Materials: Ceramic
Ceramic
Post-Modern style. Sculptural ceramic table lamps, Spain, 1980s
By Hispania CH, Cerámicas BONDIA
Located in SANT ADRIÀ DE BESÒS, ES
Sculptural ceramic table lamps, Spain, 1980s. Made of ceramic with an abstract shape similar to a
Ceramic, Opaline Glass, Paint
Memphis style. Post-Modern handmade ceramic floor lamp, Italy, 1980s
By Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi, Ettore Sottsass, George Sowden
Located in SANT ADRIÀ DE BESÒS, ES
Memphis style handmade ceramic floor lamp, Italy, 1980s. Made by hand by joining various ceramic
Metal
Post Modern White Ceramic Shell Grotto Motif Table Lamp - 1980s
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
A vintage post-modern white ceramic shell motif table lamp. Glazed in a crisp white ceramic, this
Metal
Post-Modern Large Black Ceramic and Lucite Table Lamps, Pair
Located in Doylestown, PA
A gorgeous pair of oversized black glazed ceramic lamps from the 1980's. Each lamp features a
Ceramic, Lucite
$465Sale Price|45% Off
Large post-modern ceramic table lamp by François Chatain, France 1990s
By François Châtain 1
Located in STRASBOURG, FR
Large ceramic table lamp in post-modern style by François Chatain, France circa 1990. Highly
Brass
Post Moderne Drip Glazed Ceramic Table Lamp
Located in Bradenton, FL
A Post Moderne period drip glaze ceramic table lamp. The tall baluster vase is elegantly turned and
Ceramic
$640Sale Price|20% Off
Large post-modern table lamp in glazed ceramic by Lampes D'Albret, France 1990s
By Louis Drimmer
Located in STRASBOURG, FR
for their post-modernist productions mostly in glazed ceramic, the lamp was produced in the early
Ceramic, Fabric
$1,506Sale Price|20% Off
Hollywood Regency and Post-Modern style ceramic table lamp, Italy, 1980s
Located in SANT ADRIÀ DE BESÒS, ES
Large Hollywood Regency style ceramic table lamp, Italy, 1980s. Tibor shapped as a large hand
Metal, Chrome
Italian Modern Glazed Ceramic Lamp
By Stilnovo, Leucos, Sciolari Lighting, Gaetano Sciolari
Located in Houston, TX
Italian Modern Glazed Ceramic Lamp. Offered is a lovely Italian organic modern shell shaped lamp
Ceramic
Colorful Post-Modern Table Lamp, Italy, 1980s
By Oluce, Vico Magistretti
Located in Vienna, AT
A beautiful Italian postmodern table lamp / side lamp from the 1980s. The lamps base is made of
Metal, Brass
Vintage Organic Modern Ceramic Table Lamp, USA, c1980s
Located in Oakland, CA
Gorgeous matte white organic modern vintage ceramic table lamp c1980s by unknown Bay Area artist
Ceramic
Post-Modern Missoni Table Lamp by Massimo Valloto, Italy, 1980s
By Missoni, Missoni Home
Located in Vienna, AT
An amazing colorful postmodern Missoni table or side lamp from the 1980s, designed by Massimo
Metal, Brass
Mid-Century Modern Green Ceramic Swivel Table Lamp, 1960s, Italy
Located in Hagenbach, DE
Mid-Century Modern green ceramic swivel table lamp, 1960s, Italy. Lampshade is in good condition
Ceramic
Ceramic Postmodern Table Lamp
Located in Bradenton, FL
A large postmodern plum colored ceramic table lamp. The vase is cylindrical with two pierced
Ceramic
Postmodern Ceramic Tiered Table Lamp
Located in South Bend, IN
A beautiful Postmodern ceramic tiered table lamp USA, Late 20th Century Measures: 10"W x 10"D x
Ceramic
$2,201 / item
Idolo Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Idolo Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 18 x H 32 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$1,812 / item
Saturno Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Saturno Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 17 x W 19 x H 23 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$2,460 / item
Narcissus Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Narcissus Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 19 x W 20 x H 40 cm (dimensions
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
Nono Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Nono Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 16 x W 18 x H 36 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
Studiolo Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Studiolo Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 19 x H 42 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$2,460 / item
Ninfea Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Ninfea Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 11 x W 18 x H 36 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$450 / set
1980s Sand Swirl Ceramic Table Lamps
Located in Grand Rapids, MI
USA, 1980s 1980s Sand Swirl Ceramic Table Lamps. Nice texture and soft color on these. They come
Ceramic, Linen
$3,237 / item
Appuntito Ceramic Lamp by Project 213A
Located in Geneve, CH
Appuntito Ceramic Lamp by Project 213A Dimensions: W 48 x D 21 x H 50 cm Materials: Ceramic, Wool
Ceramic, Wool, Nylon
$1,812 / item
Rectangular Ceramic Lamp by Project 213A
Located in Geneve, CH
Rectangular Ceramic Lamp by Project 213A Dimensions: W 48 x D 21 x H 66 cm Materials: Ceramic
Ceramic, Wool, Nylon
$2,201 / item
Textured Ceramic Lamp by Project 213A
Located in Geneve, CH
Textured Ceramic Lamp by Project 213A Dimensions: W 23 x D 23 x H 89 cm Materials: Ceramic, Wool
Ceramic, Wool, Nylon
$1,130Sale Price|20% Off
French ceramic table lamp, 1960's
Located in Saint-Ouen-sur-Seine, FR
French ceramic table lamp made around 1960. A mark at the back as a signature but unattributed
Ceramic
$1,824 / item
Glazed Ceramic Humus Table Lamp by Marioni
Located in Geneve, CH
Glazed Ceramic Humus Table Lamp by Marioni Dimensions: W 25 x D 25 x H 41 cm. Materials: Ceramic
Ceramic
$4,472 / item
Ceramic Floor Lamp 'Dallas' by Adelie Ducasse, 2022
By Adélie Ducasse
Located in Berlin, Berlin
Modular ceramic floor lamp, designed by Adelie Ducasse. France, Ducasse, 2022. Ceramic floor
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
L 03 Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
L 03 Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 16 x H 33 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
L 02 Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
L 02 Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 19 x H 35 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
L 01 Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
L 01 Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 18 x H 36 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$1,950 / set
Vintage Glazed Ceramic Grid Lamps - A Pair
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
Elevate your space with this striking pair of vintage ceramic table lamps, featuring a vibrant
Brass
$1,683 / item
Stanza II Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Stanza II Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 17 x W 19 x H 23 cm (dimensions
Ceramic
$1,683 / item
Stanza I Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Stanza I Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 16.5 x W 18 x H 23 cm (dimensions
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
Nuvole II Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Nuvole II Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 15 x W 19 x H 26 cm (dimensions
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
Nuvole I Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Nuvole I Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 15 x W 18 x H 26.5 cm (dimensions
Ceramic
$1,250 / set
Vintage Boho Glazed Ceramic Lamps - A Pair
Located in West Palm Beach, FL
This striking pair of table lamps beautifully captures the sophisticated energy and bold color
Brass
Postmodern Sculptural White Flame Ceramic Table Lamps
Located in Delray Beach, FL
rough ceramic texture. The frosted glass spherical lamp shade displays an etched floral pattern.
Ceramic, Glass
Thomas Hellström, Table Lamp, Ceramic, Sweden, 1970s
Located in High Point, NC
A grey-glazed incised ceramic table lamp designed by Thomas Hellström and produced by Nittsjö
Ceramic
Postmodern Dark Green Sculpted Ceramic Table Lamp
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Exceptional postmodern sculpted ceramic table lamp. Resembles the burning bush.
Ceramic
Postmodern ceramic bust shaped table lamp, Italy 1980s
Located in Firenze, IT
Postmodern ceramic bust shaped table lamp Italy 1980s (with light bulb) 18 cm H - 14 × 10 cm
Ceramic
$2,330 / item
Stella di Mare Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar
Located in Geneve, CH
Stella di Mare Ceramic Table Lamp by Renzo Maar Handmade Dimensions: D 20 x H 48 cm (dimensions are
Ceramic
$3,832 / item
Original L4 Ceramic Table Lamp by Daniel Orozco
Located in Geneve, CH
Original L4 ceramic table lamp by Daniel Orozco Material: Ceramic. Dimensions: D 30 x H 50 cm
Ceramic
$1,212 / item
Beige Ceramic Venuso Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel
Located in Geneve, CH
Beige Ceramic Venuso Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel Dimensions: Ø 50 x H 78 cm. Materials: Cotton
Ceramic, Cotton
Mid 20th Century Postmodern Ceramic Swirl Lamps, a Pair
By Royal Haeger
Located in W Allenhurst, NJ
Awesome pair of post modern glazed ceramic lamps in the style of Royal Haeger. Black circular
Ceramic
Postmodern Pink Ceramic and Lucite Swirled Table Lamp
Located in Delray Beach, FL
Outstanding vintage postmodern ceramic table lamp. Features a pink glass finish over the twisted
Ceramic
Brittish Designer, Table Lamp, Ceramic, United Kingdom, 1970s
Located in High Point, NC
A black and white-glazed ceramic table lamp designed and produced in Great Britain, c. 1970s
Ceramic
Oat Ceramic Arko Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel
Located in Geneve, CH
Oat Ceramic Arko Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel Dimensions: Ø 40 x H 67 cm. Materials: Cotton
Ceramic, Cotton
Black Ceramic Arko Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel
Located in Geneve, CH
Black Ceramic Arko Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel Dimensions: Ø 40 x H 67 cm. Materials: Cotton
Cotton, Ceramic
$2,907 / item
Mesia Glass And Ceramic Table Lamp by Luis Gimeno
Located in Geneve, CH
Mesia Glass And Ceramic Table Lamp by Luis Gimeno Dimensions: D 30 x W 30 x H 36 cm Materials
Ceramic, Glass
Ostro Ecru Ceramic Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel
Located in Geneve, CH
Ostro Ecru Ceramic Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel Dimensions: Ø 31 x H 20 cm. Materials: Opal matt
Ceramic, Opaline Glass
Ostro Sea Ceramic Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel
Located in Geneve, CH
Ostro Sea Ceramic Table Lamp by Simone & Marcel Dimensions: Ø 31 x H 20 cm. Materials: Opal matt
Ceramic, Opaline Glass
Postmodern design was a short-lived movement that manifested itself chiefly in Italy and the United States in the early 1980s. The characteristics of vintage postmodern furniture and other postmodern objects and decor for the home included loud-patterned, usually plastic surfaces; strange proportions, vibrant colors and weird angles; and a vague-at-best relationship between form and function.
ORIGINS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
CHARACTERISTICS OF POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGN
POSTMODERN FURNITURE DESIGNERS TO KNOW
VINTAGE POSTMODERN FURNITURE ON 1STDIBS
Critics derided postmodern design as a grandstanding bid for attention and nothing of consequence. Decades later, the fact that postmodernism still has the power to provoke thoughts, along with other reactions, proves they were not entirely correct.
Postmodern design began as an architectural critique. Starting in the 1960s, a small cadre of mainly American architects began to argue that modernism, once high-minded and even noble in its goals, had become stale, stagnant and blandly corporate. Later, in Milan, a cohort of creators led by Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini — a onetime mentor to Sottsass and a key figure in the Italian Radical movement — brought the discussion to bear on design.
Sottsass, an industrial designer, philosopher and provocateur, gathered a core group of young designers into a collective in 1980 they called Memphis. Members of the Memphis Group, which would come to include Martine Bedin, Michael Graves, Marco Zanini, Shiro Kuramata, Michele de Lucchi and Matteo Thun, saw design as a means of communication, and they wanted it to shout. That it did: The first Memphis collection appeared in 1981 in Milan and broke all the modernist taboos, embracing irony, kitsch, wild ornamentation and bad taste.
Memphis works remain icons of postmodernism: the Sottsass Casablanca bookcase, with its leopard-print plastic veneer; de Lucchi’s First chair, which has been described as having the look of an electronics component; Martine Bedin’s Super lamp: a pull-toy puppy on a power-cord leash. Even though it preceded the Memphis Group’s formal launch, Sottsass’s iconic Ultrafragola mirror — in its conspicuously curved plastic shell with radical pops of pink neon — proves striking in any space and embodies many of the collective’s postmodern ideals.
After the initial Memphis show caused an uproar, the postmodern movement within furniture and interior design quickly took off in America. (Memphis fell out of fashion when the Reagan era gave way to cool 1990’s minimalism.) The architect Robert Venturi had by then already begun a series of plywood chairs for Knoll Inc., with beefy, exaggerated silhouettes of traditional styles such as Queen Anne and Chippendale. In 1982, the new firm Swid Powell enlisted a group of top American architects, including Frank Gehry, Richard Meier, Stanley Tigerman and Venturi to create postmodern tableware in silver, ceramic and glass.
On 1stDibs, the vintage postmodern furniture collection includes chairs, coffee tables, sofas, decorative objects, table lamps and more.
The right table lamp, outwardly sculptural chandelier or understated wall pendant can work wonders for your home. While we’re indebted to thinkers like Thomas Edison for critically important advancements in lighting and electricity, we’re still finding new ways to customize illumination to fit our personal spaces all these years later. A wide range of antique and vintage lighting can be found on 1stDibs.
Today, lighting designers like the self-taught Bec Brittain have used the flexible structure of LEDs to craft glamorous solutions by working with what is typically considered a harsh lighting source. By integrating glass and mirrors, reflection can be used to soften the glow from LEDs and warmly welcome light into any space.
Although contemporary innovators continue to impress, some of the classics can’t be beat.
Just as gazing at the stars allows you to glimpse the universe’s past, vintage chandeliers like those designed by Gino Sarfatti and J. & L. Lobmeyr, for example, put on a similarly stunning show, each with a rich story to tell.
As dazzling as it is, the Arco lamp, on the other hand, prioritizes functionality — it’s wholly mobile, no drilling required. Designed in 1962 by architect-product designers Achille & Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, the piece takes the traditional form of a streetlamp and creates an elegant, arching floor fixture for at-home use.
There is no shortage of modernist lighting similarly prized by collectors and casual enthusiasts alike — there are Art Deco table lamps created in a universally appreciated style, the Tripod floor lamp by T.H. Robsjohn-Gibbings, Greta Magnusson Grossman's sleek and minimalist Grasshopper lamps and, of course, the wealth of mid-century experimental lighting that emerged from Italian artisans at Arredoluce, FLOS and many more are hallmarks in illumination innovation.
With decades of design evolution behind it, home lighting is no longer just practical. Crystalline shaping by designers like Gabriel Scott turns every lighting apparatus into a luxury accessory. A new installation doesn’t merely showcase a space; carefully chosen ceiling lights, table lamps and floor lamps can create a mood, spotlight a favorite piece or highlight your unique personality.
The sparkle that your space has been missing is waiting for you amid the growing collection of antique, vintage and contemporary lighting for sale on 1stDibs.