Philippe Barbier
These lights are often attributed to Maison Barbier from Paris, France, but they are not. Made in the style of the famous lamps by Barbier but made in Belgium. Most of the lamps by Barbier are signed, except the early ones.
Philippe Barbier was a well-known French designer. He was the first to distributethe famous stool “Tam-Tam” designed by Henry Massonnet (1922-2005), which he helped to develop. The chair is still in production.
Philippe Barbier also designed lamps for other companies in Europe and around the world. His designs were very popular, you can find many lamps that look similar like this one. On this website you can find some examples of lamps he designed.
Maison Barbier was a small factory in the Rue du Pré aux Clercs, near the Boulevard Saint-Germain in the centre of Paris. The company is long gone.
Links (external links open in a new window)
Massive – Wikipedia (in Dutch)
The complete history of the Philips company
Vintageinfo
Another black & chrome table lamp
1970s Chrome Black Table Lamp
Materials: Chromed metal (iron) base & parts. Black acrylic oval globe or some other plastic or resin. Paper and fabric tubular lampshade. Purple, eggplant, grape metallic coloured with a chrome metal ribbon. Bakelite E27 socket.
Height: 23 cm / 9.05”
Width: 16 cm / 6.29”
Total Height (with lampshade): 41 cm / 16.14”
Base: ∅ 10,5 cm / 4.13”
Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 60 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.
Period: 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century modern.
Designer: To be appraised.
Manufacturer: Massive, Kontich and Wommelgem, Belgium.
Other versions: This 1970s chrome black table lamp exists in several colours. Also sold with other lampshades. Massive produced these table lamps in many forms, colours and sizes as you can see below.
Two labels on the bottom. Mass. Max. 60W. (Massimo Maximum 60 Watt). Massimo is the Italian word for maximum. Max. is used for every other language in Europe were Massive sold lights at that time. On the other label there are only numbers: 13061 01 4688. And another number, partly gone. Labels like this were used by Massive Lighting. At Massive they were economical with the labels, they started using labels when the government had compelled them to do so. The first labels that became mandatory in Europe (EEC) were stickers that stated the maximum power of the light bulbs to be used. Later on Massive used the same round labels with the same font that says: Mass. Max. 60W., Made In Belgium and also a label exists with Massive Mass. Max. 60W.
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 made by VLM Components. VLM Components was founded in 1945 in Buccinasco, a small village near Milan, Italy. VLM Components is part of the Relco Group, founded in 1967. Today they are the owners of the brands Relco, Leuci, Relco Lighting, VLM Components and Segno. VLM Components became famous for the switches they produce which were designed by Achille Castiglioni in 1968.
Acrylic: often named by its commercial name: Perspex, Plexiglas, Crylux, Acrylite, Lucite, is a thermoplastic.
Other table lamps in this style, all made by Massive Lighting
Label on this lamp
Massive Lighting label on a desk lamp
