Midcentury Table Lamp Pair Pink Flowers
Mid-20th Century Chinese Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Brass, Gold Leaf
Vintage 1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Antique Late 19th Century Austrian Late Victorian Table Lamps
Art Glass
Mid-20th Century Italian Hollywood Regency Table Lamps
Metal, Tôle
Mid-20th Century Chinese Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Brass
Mid-20th Century Chinese Table Lamps
Ceramic
20th Century American Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Porcelain, Wood
2010s Italian Mid-Century Modern Chandeliers and Pendants
Resin
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Crystal, Iron
Vintage 1970s Asian Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Silk, Wood, Ceramic
21st Century and Contemporary Mexican Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Textile, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Mexican Mid-Century Modern Floor Lamps
Textile, Wood
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Mid-Century Modern Flush Mount
Metal
21st Century and Contemporary Swedish Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
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Antique Early 19th Century French Gothic Revival Musical Instruments
Brass
Antique Mid-19th Century English High Victorian Taxidermy
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2010s Spanish Post-Modern Wall Lights and Sconces
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Mid-20th Century American Chinoiserie Table Lamps
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Mid-20th Century Chinese Chinoiserie Table Lamps
Brass
1990s Italian Chandeliers and Pendants
Metal
20th Century Neoclassical Center Tables
Wrought Iron
Vintage 1950s Italian Table Lamps
Iron
Vintage 1960s German Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Metal
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Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Antique 1870s French Victorian Table Lamps
Porcelain
Vintage 1950s American Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Acrylic
20th Century Italian Table Lamps
Murano Glass, Giltwood
20th Century Italian Table Lamps
Tôle
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Gold Leaf
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Blown Glass, Parchment Paper
20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
Brass
Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Glass
Art Glass, Blown Glass, Glass, Murano Glass, Ribbon
Vintage 1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Table Lamps
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Finding the Right table-lamps for You
Well-crafted antique and vintage table lamps do more than provide light; the right fixture-and-table combination can add a focal point or creative element to any interior.
Proper table lamps have long been used for lighting our most intimate spaces. Perfect for lighting your nightstand or reading nook, table lamps play an integral role in styling an inviting room. In the years before electricity, lamps used oil. Today, a rewired 19th-century vintage lamp can still provide a touch of elegance for a study.
After industrial milestones such as mass production took hold in the Victorian era, various design movements sought to bring craftsmanship and innovation back to this indispensable household item. Lighting designers affiliated with Art Deco, which originated in the glamorous roaring ’20s, sought to celebrate modern life by fusing modern metals with dark woods and dazzling colors in the fixtures of the era. The geometric shapes and gilded details of vintage Art Deco table lamps provide an air of luxury and sophistication that never goes out of style.
After launching in 1934, Anglepoise lamps soon became a favorite among modernist architects and designers, who interpreted the fixture as “a machine for lighting,” just as Le Corbusier had reimagined the house as “a machine for living in.” The popular task light owed to a collaboration between a vehicle-suspension engineer by the name of George Carwardine and a West Midlands springs manufacturer, Herbert Terry & Sons.
Some mid-century modern table lamps, particularly those created by the likes of Joe Colombo and the legendary lighting artisans at Fontana Arte, bear all the provocative hallmarks associated with Space Age design. Sculptural and versatile, the Louis Poulsen table lamps of that period were revolutionary for their time and still seem innovative today.
If you are looking for something more contemporary, industrial table lamps are demonstrative of a newly chic style that isn’t afraid to pay homage to the past. They look particularly at home in any rustic loft space amid exposed brick and steel beams.
Before you buy a desk lamp or table lamp for your living room, consider your lighting needs. The Snoopy lamp, designed in 1967, or any other “banker’s lamp” (shorthand for the Emeralite desk lamps patented by H.G. McFaddin and Company), provides light at a downward angle that is perfect for writing, while the Fontana table lamp and the beloved Grasshopper lamp by Greta Magnusson-Grossman each yield a soft and even glow. Some table lamps require lampshades to be bought separately.
Whether it’s a classic antique Tiffany table lamp, a Murano glass table lamp or even a bold avant-garde fixture custom-made by a contemporary design firm, the right table lamp can completely transform a room. Find the right one for you on 1stDibs.
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