Lumina Daphinette Desk Lamp

Materials: Black rectangular painted base with a built-in transformer and switch. Mat white painted lid. Adjustable thin white painted rod. Adjustable white painted half round lampshade with a handle. Switch on top. Aluminium reflector. Porcelain socket.

Height: 45 cm / 17.71” – adjustable

Lampshade: 8 cm / 3.14”

Rod: 35 cm / 13.77”

Base: 9,5 x 8 cm / 3.74 x 3.14”

Electricity: 1 halogen bulb G4, 1 x 20 watt maximum,12 volt, 220 volt. Any type of halogen bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred. It has a switch to toggle between 6 and 12 volts.

Period: 1970s, 1980s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Tommaso Cimini in 1975.

Manufacturer: Lumina Italia srl, via Casorezzo, 63, 20010 Arluno (Milan), Italy.

Other versions: The Lumina Daphinette desk lamp exists in several colours. Today it is produced in LED. The design of the lamp is very similar to the Daphine desk lamp, but it is the smaller version. For instance, the base of the Daphine is square and it has a single arm.

Other lamps are named Daphine Cilindro and Daphine Cloe. The floor lamp is named Daphine Terra. Daphine Parete is the wall lamp version. You can find them all on the Lumina Italia website.

Lumina

The Lumina Italia lighting company was founded in 1975 by Tommaso Cimini (1947-1997) when he designed his famous Daphine table lamp. He designed this lamp made of a transformer and presented it on the Milan Fair in 1974. It was an instant success. Lumina itself started to produce several different lamps as a real lighting firm in 1980. Tommaso Cimini designed many lamps for his company. Among others the Daphine, Maxi, Zed, Imbutto, Elle and the Igloo.

Tommaso Cimini died in an aeroplane accident in 1997, leaving his company to his business partner and his oldest son Ettore.

Today the company is managed by his sons Ettore and Andrea, who carry on the family business. All lighting is produced in Italy in the plants near Milan in Arluno and is all handmade.

Several lamps are displayed in some of the most famous Museums of Modern Art and Design, such as the Musée d’Arts Décoratifs in Paris, the Brooklyn Museum and the Judd Foundation in New York. Die Neue Sammlung in Munich and The Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Designers that worked for the company are amongst others: Walter Monici, Tommaso Cimini, Emanuele Rici, Yaacov Kaufman, Francesco Brambilla, Ettore Cimini, Giuseppe Linardi, Foster+Partners, Luciano Balestrini, Paola Longhi.