1970s Opal & Purple Pendant Lamp

Materials: White frosted opal glass diffuser. Purple transparent acrylic half round lampshade. White acrylic ring. Some brass and chrome parts. Reinforced electrical wire. Chromed metal (iron) ring. Bakelite E27 socket.

Cord Length: 80 cm / 31.49’’

Height: 28 cm / 11.02”

Width: ∅ 23 cm / 9.05”

Width lampshade: ∅ 38 cm / 14.96”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 100 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, but a white, opaque or frosted one is preferred; it gives the best result with this light.

Period: 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: To be appraised.

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

Raak

This 1970s opal & purple pendant lamp is often attributed to the Raak company from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, but it is not. It does not appear in any of the catalogues, of course. It is not in the Raak style and it also has no label (most Raak lamps are labelled). Most of the time these pendant lamps are sold without the purple acrylic lampshade and the chromed metal ring as you can see in the example, so beware! 

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 commercialised 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.

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