Elegant Carl-Harry Stalhane Lamp

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...

'Illuminated Dwelling' lamp by American artist James Bearden, from his Cathedral series. Hand-forged of blackened and polished steel in 2015.. A one-of-a-kind design that is essentia...

Drum-shaped lite table of molded fiberglass mounted on three solid birch legs, designed and produced circa 1950 by Asian/American architectural lighting designer Bill Lam. William M....

Unit furniture of Philippine mahogany with white Masonite panels consisting of a module with sliding Masonite doors and a double wide module with an open front. Designed by Harvard-educated, Boston-area architect, designer, and urban planner Carl Koch as a corollary to his prefabricated Techbuilt houses and produced in 1955. Koch was a pioneering champion of prefabrication in housing in mid-century America, first with his much-publicized but ill-fated all-steel Lustron houses in the late 1930’s, then with his more successful wooden Tech-Built houses, introduced in 1953. In At Home with Tomorrow, his 1958 paean to prefabrication, he lays out his opposition to the traditional hammer-and-handsaw construction methods that remained dominant even with conceptually modernist structures. His designs generally hewed to a regional brand of modernism rather than orthodox international style, taking into account local topography and climate—his iconic form is an A-frame with a pitched roof, more sensible in New England winters than a flat roof (though there are such Techbuilt designs). The basic Techbuilt formula suggested that modular, industrial production methods of the components combined with knock-down shipping and on-site assembly equalled lower cost and less waste. Variety and individuality could be achieved in how the elements were combined. This underlying philosophy involving modularity, flexibility, and industrial production methods applied to Spacemaking furniture as well, although interestingly enough, the furniture design preceded the architectural application, as Koch (et al) had submitted a version to the 1947 MoMA Low-Cost Furniture Competition (and so these units also preceded the famous 1951 Eames Storage Unit, a conceptually similar idea executed with metal framing). The furniture line began with requests for freestanding wardrobe...

Knoll brochure featuring chair (and bench) designs by Harry Bertoia but also including work by Richard Schultz, Isamu Noguchi, and Florence Knoll. Publi...

Adjustable (up-and-down and pivoting) floor lamp with a Constructivist iron base surmounted by a quirky, almost anthropomorphic hand-molded fiberglass diffuser–an early use of fiberglass in product design. A one-off by Ross Bellah, made in the 1940’s with a design that straddles the Machine Age 1930’s and the Organic Design 1940’s. Bellah (1907-2004), along with his partner Carl Anderson...

Matte brown hares-fur glazed earthenware ceramic base. The variations of color give this lamp a warm, subtle distinctiveness. "Rorstrand Sweden" original label.

Table Lamp designed by Carl-Harry Stalhane for Rorstränd, signed on the bottom. Sweden 1960s This Table lamp follows the forms that define the designer’s best ceramic pieces, with s...

3 lamps available. Listed price is for one lamp. Brown glazed stoneware, designed by Carl-Harry Stålhane and produced by the Swedish firm Rörstrand, 1950s. Sold with or without lam...

Product Description:  This lamp stand made of earthenware from the series "Orient" was probably named after the look the artist Carl-Harry Stålhane wanted to convey. When looking at the item through your eyelashes the pattern on the lamp resembles a Japanese kanji...

Glazed stoneware, designed by Carl-Harry Stålhane and produced by the Swedish firm Rörstrand, 1950s. Height: 46 cm

A black, blue and brown-glazed stoneware table lamp designed by Carl-Harry Stålhane and produced by Rörstrand, Sweden, 1950s. Dimensions of Lamp (inches): 14.15” H x 3.75” Diameter ...