Lampada da terra Toio italiana moderna, metallo, di Castiglioni per Flos, 1970s

The idea of the readymade didn’t just upend the art world, it also provoked a wave of invention in design. This provocative spirit is alive and well in the Toio floor lamp, which sees an integration of automotive parts as well as everyday recreational gear.

Along with their eldest brother, Livio, Pier Giacomo (1913–68) and Achille (1918–2002) Castiglioni were born in Milan and for a time, the three worked together in their own firm as architects and designers. While Livio departed the practice in 1952, Pier Giacomo and Achille would continue to collaborate on a wealth of projects in the ensuing years. The pair shared an experimental nature and injected personality and wit into the wide range of their celebrated mid-century modern designs, such as the Arco lamp, the Snoopy lamp and lots more.

Inspired by Marcel Duchamp, the brothers often used found objects in their designs, notably in the Mezzadro Tractor stool, the Super Sella stool and the Toio floor lamp. Produced by FLOS in 1962, the Toio (“toy”) incorporates a car headlamp and elements of a fishing pole. The height of the headlamp, which always faces up to provide indirect light, is adjustable, while fishing-rod rings at intervals along the stem help guide the electrical cord. At the base, a mechanism similar to the cleats on a boat keeps the cord neatly coiled and tucked away from view. These inventive utilitarian touches earned the fixture a coveted spot in MoMA’s permanent collection. Unusual and delightful in equal amounts, the Toio floor lamp is still manufactured by FLOS and reminds us that humor is a potent element of design.

Imaginative lighting is a longtime hallmark of modern Italian design. Following in the footsteps of innovative companies such as Artemide and Arteluce, the company FLOS brought a fresh aesthetic philosophy to the Italian lighting field in the 1960s, one that would produce several of the iconic floor lamp, table lamp and pendant light designs of the era.

FLOS — Latin for “flower” — was founded in the northern town of Merano in 1962 by Cesare Cassina (of the famed Cassina furniture-making family) and Dino Gavina, a highly cultured businessman who believed that artistic ideas espoused in postwar Italy could inform commercial design. The two enlisted brothers Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni as their first designers.

Even before FLOS was formally incorporated, the Castiglionis gave the firm one of its enduring successes with the Taraxacum pendant and associated designs made by spraying an elastic polymer on a metal armature. (George Nelson had pioneered the technique in the United States in the early 1950s.) For other designs, the brothers found inspiration in everyday objects. Suggestive of streetlights, their Arco floor lamp, with its chrome boom and ball-shaped shade sweeping out from a marble block base, has become a staple of modernist decors. Designing for FLOS since 1966, Tobia Scarpa has also been inspired by the commonplace. His folded-metal Foglio sconces resemble a shirt cuff; his carved marble Biagio table lamp looks like a jai alai basket.

In 1973, FLOS purchased Arteluce, the company founded in 1939 by Gino Sarfatti, and it continues to produce his designs. In recent decades, FLOS has contracted work from several noted designers, including Marcel Wanders and Jasper Morrison. As instantly recognizable as they are, many FLOS designs remain accessible. While FLOS lighting is the essence of modernity, its sleek, subtle designs can be used to strike a sculptural note in even traditional spaces.

Browse a broad range of FLOS lighting fixtures at 1stDibs.