Fase President S/C Desk Lamp

Materials: Dark red painted round metal base. Wooden boomerang style arm with a black painted rectangular metal rod. Red lacquered round metal UFO lampshade. Chrome ring and joint. Glass diffuser below. Some chrome and metal parts. 2 Bakelite E27 sockets.

Height: 40 cm / 15.74”

Lampshade: ∅ 30 cm / 11.81”

Base: ∅ 20 cm / 7.87”

Electricity: 2 bulbs E27, 2 x 40 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.

Period: 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Luis Pérez de la Oliva.

Manufacturer: Fase, Torrejón de Ardoz, Madrid, Spain.

Other versions: The Fase President S/C desk lamp was made in many colours over the years. orange, grey, ochre, black and so on. The lampshade can rotate left and right. Also a President with a counterweight balanced arm was produced. Fase produced many lamps in this style. Later versions have 2 screws in the wood, as you can see in the 1980s catalogue. 

Another Spanish company named Ma-Of produced a copy of this lamp with slight differences.

Fase

The Fase company was founded by self-made man Pedro Martin and designer Luis Pérez de la Oliva in 1964, some sources say 1966.

The Boomerang lamp was one of their first designs, you find it over here on Vintageinfo. Initially they sold their self-produced lamps to the markets in and around the capital Madrid before successfully opening a factory in Torrejón de Ardoz on the outskirts of the city.

They produced mainly lamps, but also ashtrays and other products such as office bins and coat racks.

Fase supplied many lamps to the offices of General Franco‘s dictatorial government and the Guardia Civil, some sort of military police. From 1975 on, after the death of Franco and the end of the regime, Fase started with Italian Modern and Bauhaus-inspired designs. The Spaniards were unfamiliar with this design because of the Franco regime that ruled the country with an iron fist and allowed few foreign influences.

During the 70s Fase exported lamps to Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxembourg,  Great Britain, Norway, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, United Arab Emirates, Japan, Hong Kong, Morocco, the United States and Canada. In total in more than 32 countries.

The 1980s

In the 1980s Fase jumped on the bandwagon of the halogen lighting. The break with tradition proved unsuccessful and ultimately contributed to the end of the business. A large fine of the Treasury in the early nineties for tax irregularities was the end for Fase. The company was officially dissolved in 1996.

Drowned, the company sold its manufacturing license to a German brand, Ma-Of, which slightly modified the original design by adding more chrome. Before these final death rattles, the partners had already separated. Luis Pérez de la Oliva had created his own brand Lupela, another flagship of Spanish design. GEI (Gabinete Estudios Industriales – Cabinet Industrial Studies) was another company that sold similar lamps. Also Massive from Belgium produced a few lamps in this style.

When the company stopped producing them abruptly, there was a lot of ‘stock’ available in the warehouses. That’s why you find relatively many lamps with a label attached. Many lamps are sold new and never used in the box (NOS – New Old Stock).

Designers who have worked for the company include: Gabriel Teixidó. He designed the Iberia and Meca series and Tomás Díaz Magro, responsible for the Apolo, Minifase and Impala lamps. The most productive was Luis Pérez de la Oliva, who designed the majority of the Fase lamps.

Fase also sold lamps made by others such as the Yamada Shomei ‘Manon’ table lamp from Japan. You can find it over here on Vintageinfo. The Prisma table lamp was produced in Italy by F.A.A.I. Arredo. Also the Sinus stacking ashtray made by Helit from Germany. A design by Walter Zeischegg from 1967. You can find it here in the MoMA, New York. Fase also sold lamps from other companies.

Lamps in the movies

The Fase lamps were used as a prop in many films. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Mad Man-TV series (2007-2015), Atomic Blonde (2017), Made In Dagenham (2010), La Fôret-TV series (2017), Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), many Almodóvar films, and so on.