De Castelli Existence Consolle by Michele De Lucchi

Devised by Michele de Lucchi (b. 1951) and Giancarlo Fassina (b. 1935), the provocative Tolomeo table lamp was initially intended as an update on the pantographic table lamp — an effort by the Italian architect-designers to create a fully adjustable, user-centric modern lighting fixture that embodied functionalism as well as high design. The lamp, an all-time best seller for Milan lighting brand Artemide — and, reportedly, the most popular lighting design ever — remains a timeless artifact well into the 21st century, more than 30 years after its debut.

Northern Italy–born de Lucchi and Milan native Fassina designed the Tolomeo lamp prototype in 1986. While de Lucchi’s background was in architecture and industrial design, as is reflected in the functional sleekness of the Tolomeo, he also had a colorful creative history. After moving to Milan in the late 1970s, he befriended Ettore Sottsass and Alessandro Mendini and became one of the main activists for the Memphis Group, an unorthodox design collective founded by Sottsass. Fassina, a graduate of the Polytechnic University of Milan, was also a proponent of avant-garde ideas. Conceived with maximum flexibility and adaptability in mind, the Tolomeo table lamp was far more practical than anything else that de Lucchi and Fassina had designed up until that point.

“No desk lamp should make you use two hands to position it,” said de Lucchi. The Tolomeo’s arm and structure are made of extruded aluminum with a weighted steel base and minimal conical shade. Three points in the lamp — at the base, between the arms and at the diffuser — have adjustable nodes that allow the lamp to be positioned at several different heights and angles, and the head can swivel 360 degrees. Lightweight and slim, the Tolomeo table lamp’s forward-looking flexibility defies being limited to one kind of use and can fit into the design of any room. 

Since its original conception, Artemide has consistently expanded the Tolomeo family to include a range of sizes and modern innovations such as LED models. The classic Tolomeo table lamp is now available in desk, floor, wall, track and suspension models. Newer flourishes include dimmers, motion sensors for energy conservation and tunable white LED technology, which allows for variation in light intensity and color temperatures. But the Tolomeo table lamp has always been sharp and sophisticated, having won the prestigious Compasso d’Oro award for Italian industrial design two years after its 1987 debut. It’s an internationally revered design, then and now.

In its creative exploration of industrial processes, Italian furniture manufacturer DeCastelli transforms brass, copper, stainless steel and other metals and alloys into eye-catching cabinets, cocktail tables, chairs and even decorative vases, bringing out the design potential of each raw material with its decades of expertise.

Adhering to what the brand calls "hard couture," DeCastelli positions metalworking as an art form. The brand, with four generations of ironworkers at its core, was established in 2003. DeCastelli works with designers and studios such as Marco Pisati, Emilio Nanni and IvDesign to create wondrously sculptural pieces that are at once imposing in their rawness and delicate in what is often an ode to natural forms. The tall metal storage cabinets of the Ripple collection, for example, feature concave doors that mirror the surface of a lake or a river while the spiraling etchings that adorn the iron and copper surfaces of the Syro coffee tables, with their tree branch-like supports, similarly evoke the movement of water.

Every piece of the company's furniture is made at the DeCastelli headquarters in the northern Italian commune of Crocetta del Montello, where metal and its potential ties all of the designs together — even upholstered pieces like sofas and ottomans feature brass bases and sophisticated brushed stainless steel embellishments.

DeCastelli has found great success in recent years partly due to collaborations with well-known brands and designers. At the Geneva International Motor Show in 2019, the company partnered with Maserati to fashion sheet metal into the shape of the Quattroporte Maserati dashboard. In 2021, DeCastelli collaborated with Adriano Design on a mobile copper liquor cabinet called the Barista. A few months later, it unveiled a collection of storage pieces called Marea with design studio Zanellato/Bortotto.

DeCastelli has also recently opened a new showroom in the historic city center of Milan. The space was designed by Cino Zucchi Architetti, a leading European design studio, to showcase the company's furniture and metalworking expertise.

On 1stDibs, find DeCastelli storage cabinets, tables, decorative objects and more.