Spiral lamps
Many companies produced spiral lamps. The first one and at least one of the most famous lamps is the lamp designed by Ingo Maurer and produced by his company M-Design. Often said that it is a lamp from the 1970s, but it was designed and produced for the first time in the late 1960s. His spiral lamp is copied many times, also many variations were made, beware!
In 1971 Heinz Brenker (pseudonym used by Studio Tecnico Interno Harvey Guzzini from 1958 until 1974) designed a spiral table lamp named Jo-Jo for Harvey Guzzini. It was in production from 1972 until 1974.
Angelo Mangiarotti designed several spiral spring lamps for the Italian Candle in the 1970s. Candle is part of Fontana Arte.
Other producers that made this type of lamps in the 1970s are, amongst others:
Elco Lite, Woja, Fase, Luciano Frigerio, Sciolari Illuminazione, Lumi, Targetti, Laurel, Sonneman, Bonomi Form, Inter Néo, Massive, AV Mazzega and so on.
Many thanks to Frank from nullviernull raum+kommunikation for the beautiful pictures and enthusiasm. You can find his shop over here on Ebay.
Staff Chrome Tube Floor Lamp
Materials: Chromed metal (iron) spring tube base. Chrome socket holder and parts. Hand blown bubble glass (pelugoso) globe lampshade. Bakelite E27 socket.
Lampshade: ∅ 30 cm / 11.81”
Height: 67 cm / 26.37”
Base: ∅ 20 cm / 7.87”
Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 100 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific preferred.
Period: 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.
Designer: To be apraised.
Manufacturer: Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerke GMBH, Lemgo, Germany.
Other versions: This Staff spiral floor lamp exists with several different lampshades. Also a table lamp exists.
The design of this lamp is, to say the least, inspired by the Ingo Maurer spiral lamp from the 1960s. Many other spiral lamps exists.
Staff
Staff Leuchten – Staff & Schwarz Leuchtenwerk (lighting plant) – was established by Alfred Staff and Otto Schwarz in Lemgo, (West) Germany in 1945.
Their business started as a shop for consumer goods in wood and metal as well as pesticide for controlling the Colorado potato beetle, a huge problem at that time.
Within a year they the company expanded with 15 employees and they produced the first wrought iron luminaires. Over the next three decades, Staff was to develop into a world leader in design excellence, receiving over 200 awards for their achievements.
Staff also collaborated with the Italian company Stilnovo. They published a joint catalogue in the 1970s. The Dutch Raak and the Danish Lyfa sold several lamps in the 60s and 70s. Several other companies did.
In 1994 Zumtobel bought the company.
Pulegoso
Pulegoso: Italian word taken from the dialect word pulega, which means bubble. The glass is containing numerous bubbles of all sizes, produced by adding bicarbonate/soda, gasoline, or other substances to the glass. The bubbles make the glass semi-opaque and give the surface an irregular texture. The technique was developed in the 1920s by Napoleone Martinuzzi (1892-1977) on the island of Murano, Italy and used for the first time by the famous Venini company.
Links (external links open in a new window)
History of the company can be found here: 60 Years of Light from Lemgo – Zumtobel plant celebrates historic milestones
Colorado potato beetle on Wikipedia as an agricultural pest
Vintageinfo – Spiral lamps
1970s Fase spiral table lamp – Ingo Maurer
Chrome Spiral table lamp – Massive
Honsel Leuchten spiral table lamp
Other spiral lamps
Honsel Leuchten spiral table lamp
Staff lamps
Oyster wall lamp – Dieter Witte
Cross Oyster wall lamp – Rolf Krüger