Bill Lam Table Lamp with Tiltable Fiberglass Reflector

About the Item

Table lamp composed of an enameled steel tube with a tiltable Fiberglas reflector shade, designed and produced by Asian/American designer and educator Bill Lam in 1952. William M.C. (Bill) Lam (1924-2012), a pioneer in architectural lighting, was born and raised in Hawaii, entering MIT in 1941 and graduating with a degree in architecture in 1949 after serving as a pilot in the Army Air Corps in WWII. Influenced by Alvar Aalto and Charles Eames, both visiting professors at MIT, Lam established a small atelier, Lam Workshop, outside Boston in the late 1940’s, producing a series of his own lighting designs and a two-level cocktail table that gained widespread recognition in the national design press, earning MoMA Good Design selections in 1950 and 1951 as well as inclusion in close to 50 museum collections and exhibitions throughout the United States and distribution through Lightolier, Richards-Morgenthau (Raymor), Bloomingdale’s, Carroll Sagar, and numerous other showrooms and shops offering and promoting modern furnishings. His designs were merit specified for California Art & Architecture’s Case Study House program in 1950, featured in the Boston Institute of Contemporary Art’s Current Design quarterlies and in Furniture Forum, and chosen by General Electric and Westinghouse for model homes to demonstrate how to use light to best advantage. Lam would cease producing these designs in the later 1950’s, shifting his attention to the design and manufacture of prefabricated architectural lighting systems along with consulting, teaching, and writing—he taught lighting design at Harvard and MIT and authored two influential books for the lighting design profession. His 1950 drum-shaped lite-table was one of the first consumer products made of fiberglass reinforced plastic—it was shown alongside the Eames/Evans plastic shell chair in period ads for the material. He designed a fiberglass clip-on light diffuser fixture around the same time; it appeared in the Winter 1951/52 issue of Current Design with a date of design of April 1951. With a 14” diameter, it was pitched as a ceiling fixture or sconce and was intended to be “almost unbreakable and absolutely washable.” This element was then included in two pivoting armature wall lamps—one a Good Design selection--and a gooseneck floor lamp. All these designs emphasized functionality, flexibility, and economy and emitted light with a soft intimate glow. The present design was clearly to be part of this series—a steel cylinder using the fiberglass fixture to diffuse and throw light. The lamp was included in a lighting survey in Interiors in June, 1952. The description—"a tiltable Fiberglas reflector on a steel tube in enameled white, black, red or gray”--suggests that the lamp was intended for serial production and indicates that the tilting mechanism was integral to the design (the tilting finial on the lamp shows a patent date of 1942). Tilting the fixture through a range of motion to change how light is thrown locates the lamp in dialogue with several winning entries in the MoMA 1951 Low Cost Lighting Competition, notably the flexible gooseneck lamp devised by Zahara Schatz. The form relates to other progressive lamps by architects, artists, and designers based on a cylinder, and designed contemporaneously: Philip Johnson and Richard Kelly’s 1950 floor lamp with a floating metal conical shade, designed first for the Glass House and then produced in small numbers by Edison Price; Noguchi’s 1947 Model 9 table lamp for Knoll; several designs by Paul Mayen for Habitat, to name a few. Though intended for serial production, it is possible that production of the Lam cylinder lamp was limited to but a few examples; I cannot recall having seen one before. It is certainly an exciting rediscovery of a rare design by one of a mere handful of lighting designers in mid-century America whose work resonated with modernist architectural interiors and both received and deserved museum recognition. Note: Measurements include the reflector; the cylinder itself has a diameter of 4”. Provenance: From the collection of an industrial designer who grew up in Lynn, MA, served in the Army Air Corps during WWII, then studied at Pratt in New York with Alexander Kostellow and Eva Zeisel, graduating in 1951 with a degree in Industrial Design. He purchased the lamp, along with a lite-table and tall tripod lantern, directly from Lam Workshop in Brookline, MA in 1952, at which time his in-laws also lived in Brookline, less than 2 miles away. Thence by descent to the present owner, who also retained the lamp table (the tripod lantern was destroyed in use at some point).

Creator:
Bill Lam (Designer)
Dimensions:
Height: 16 in (40.64 cm)Diameter: 14 in (35.56 cm)
Power Source:
Hardwired
Voltage:
110-150v
Lampshade:
Included
Style:
Mid-Century Modern (Of the Period)
Materials and Techniques:
Fiberglass,Rubber,Steel,Enameled
Place of Origin:
United States
Period:
1950-1959
Date of Manufacture:
1952
Condition:
Rewired: The lamp has been rewired in the past. Replacements made: The rubber caps on the feet have been replaced at some point in the past. Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. Good structural condition. Some discoloration to areas of the fiberglass diffuser, with some glue residue around the hole in the top, likely for reinforcement. Some loss of paint to areas on the steel cylinder.
Seller Location:
New York, NY
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU828534017572
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