1930s Franz Tomschick Table Lamp

Materials: Round base. Skyscraper style spatter glass lampshade in many colours. Two glass parts. Bakelite E27 socket.

Height: 28 cm / 11.02”

Width: ∅ 12 cm / 4.72”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 60 watt maximum, 110/220 volt. Any type of light bulb can be used. But preferably a white or frosted bulb.

Period: 1920s, 1930s – Art deco.

Designer: To be appraised.

Manufacturer: Franz Tomschick, Košťany, Bohemen – Today Czech Republic.

Other versions: This 1930s Franz Tomschick table lamp exists in many versions. None of these lamps are exactly the same. They are hand blown and the colours are a bit different. This lamp is model 03336, designed around 1933.

Franz Tomschick

The Franz Tomschick company was founded in 1901 in Košťany near Teplice in Bohemen, today the Czech Republic, when he bought the glass factory that was founded in 1872 by the brothers Václav and Valentýn Hölzel.

Around 1930 some 400 people were working in the factory. They produced all kind of glass, not only for lamps. The company had offices and exported to countries such as Germany, Austria, Italy, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Turkey and Egypt.

During the Second World War, the glass factory mainly produced lighting and utility glass. After the war, the factory was nationalised. The company no longer exists. After 1990, it was privatised, but the operation could not be maintained. On May 1, 1996, the operation of the glass factory was definitively terminated.

Spatter glass, or splatter glass, also known as end-of-day glass or splashed glass, is a technique that has been used for several centuries, and dates right back to the Romans. It is hand blown glass which has been rolled over a heated steel plate to pick up small chips of crushed glass or powdered glass.

Sometimes said this lamp is made by the Belgian company Scailmont, the “Verreries de Scailmont” (glass makers of) from Manage and it is a design by Charles Catteau (1880-1966), but his designs are all signed.

Most of the spatter glass is Czechoslovakian, but it was made across the globe. The most important Czech companies were: Ruckl, Loetz and Kralik.