1960s Senior Style Desk Lamp –

Other examples of this table lamp, with single or double lamp shade.

VLM Components switch

Fog & Morup Senior – original – design Jo Hammerborg

1960s Senior Style Desk Lamp

Materials: Thick chromed metal (iron and brass) square and round rods. The base is made in a tripod style. Double conical acrylic lampshade in white and transparent green. Chrome ornamental nut on top. White Bakelite E27 sockets.

Height: 40 cm / 15.74”

Width: ∅ 30 cm / 11.81”

Electricity: 2 bulbs E27, 2 x 40 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used. Preferably small white/opaque round bulbs.

Period: 1960s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: To be appraised, inspired by a Jo Hammerborg design.

Manufacturer: Massive, Mortsel, Kontich and Wommelgem, Belgium.

Other versions: This 1960s Senior style desk lamp exists with a single shade in white and black. Probably also made in several other colours. This lamp is always for sale as a Fog & Morup lamp designed by Jo Hammerborg, but it is not. Many variations exists of this table lamp, also sold with a normal round lampshade. These lamps were also made with a flat round black or chrome base and a ribbed rod.

The original Senior table lamp has a glass (double) shade and is made in green or lilac and white and is 45 cm high and 33 cm wide. Just a little bit bigger than this one (example of this beauty below).

The original Senior desk lamp appears for the first time in the Fog & Morup catalogue in 1966. It is very similar with the President desk lamp, also a Jo Hammerborg design.

This table lamp is a nice copy or interpretation in a rather high quality. The Belgium Massive company is notorious for this.

Massive

Massive was in origin a bronze foundry and they produced mainly candlesticks, crucifixes and chandeliers in Wilrijk near Antwerp, Belgium. The company was founded in 1926 by Pieter-Jozef De Jaeck. His son Eddy De Jaeck was responsible for the huge expansion of the company in the 1970s. But it were his sons, Piet and Jan De Jaeck who made Massive a true multinational. Thus, they moved production to Eastern Europe and China.

In the 1980s Massive became the leading brand in Europe. In 2002, the brothers left the company to the investment fund CVC Capital Partners, for allegedly more than 250 million euros. Since 2008 the company is owned by Philips and the name of the shops is changed into Light Gallery.

When the takeover by Philips was announced in November 2006 Massive commercialized more than 10.000 lighting products under brand names such as Massive, TRIO and Lirio. The group had about 5.000 employees worldwide and was active in 70 countries.

Massive sold many lamps made by others. Peill + Putzler from Germany and Yamada Shomei from Japan produced lamps for Massive, to name a few. Many other lighting companies did.

VLM Components

All the electric parts were produced by VLM Components in the 60s. The company was founded in 1945 in Buccinasco, a small village near Milan, Italy. The company became famous for the switches they produce since 1968, designed by Achille Castiglioni.

VLM is part of the Relco Group, founded in 1967. Today they are the owners of the brands Relco, Leuci, Relco Lighting, VLM and Segno.

Acrylic: often named by its commercial name: Perspex, Plexiglas, Crylux, Acrylite, Lucite, is a thermoplastic.

Jo Hammerborg

Johannes (Jo) Hammerborg was born on 4 February 1920 in Denmark.
In 1957 he became head of design at Fog & Mørup. Hammerborg was a prolific designer, personally creating some 100 lamps for Fog & Mørup and also collaborated with other designers in adapting their designs. Jo retired in 1980, only a short time before both his own death and the demise of the company.