Gebruder Leclaire & Schafer label on the left and the Richard Essig company label found on another flower chandelier. DORIA labels are never found on these lamps.
Links (external links open in a new window)
Richard Essig lamps – Google images
Massive – Wikipedia (in Dutch)
iF-Design awards for Peill + Putzler
Vintageinfo
Richard Essig DORIA chandelier
First of all, it is not a lamp by DORIA!
Materials: Chromed metal (iron) tubes and globe, made in a sputnik style. Yellowish/amber clear glass lampshades. Metal or Bakelite E14 sockets.
Height: 72 cm / 28.34”
Width: ∅ 50 cm / 19.68”
Electricity: 9 bulbs E14, 9 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: To be appraised.
Manufacturer: Massive, Mortsel, Belgium.
Other versions: Made in many forms and sizes, also made as flush mount, wall lamp, table lamp.
These lamps are most of the time sold as lamps designed by Richard Essig for the German company DORIA. But that is ridiculous. Richard Essig is not a designer and these lamps are not even made in the DORIA-style.
You never find these lamps with a DORIA label. Often there is a Richard Essig label present, and that is not a designer but a company.
Other labels that were found on these lamps are from Leclaire & Schäfer from Germany, Massive from Belgium and Peill + Putzler. So in all probability the glass was produced by Peill + Putzler. It is certain that Massive used it’s own parts and only bought the glass, because the canopy and metal parts are typical for the Belgian company. Maybe they also produced these lamps for others.
Richard Essig
Richard Essig – Often said that he designed lamps for DORIA, but it was a wholesale company that bought, among other things, old stocks. Essig sold lamps made by Staff, Disderot, Massive and several other companies, labelled with Richard Essig – Besigheim.
Besigheim is a German town, not a company. (found a lamp online with “Richard Esssig design for Besigheim“)
The company did not produce lighting. All the lamps you find are made by others, many by Massive. Richard Essig no longer exists.
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.
Peill + Putzler
Glashüttenwerk Peill und Sohn was founded in 1903 in Düren, a small town in (West) Germany. Peill und Sohn merged with Putzler (founded in 1869) in 1947 as a glass works and lighting company and became Peill + Putzler Glashüttenwerke.
The company always worked with important designers such as Wilhelm Wagenfeld, William Brown, Helmut Demary, Aloys Ferdinand Gangkofner, Horst Tüselmann and many others.
In the 1950s 1500 people were working for the company. They also produced glass for other light companies in Europe, such as Raak, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In 1995 the production of glass and lighting moved to Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic. Only the trading of lamps en glass stayed in Düren. 1 year after the 100th anniversary in 2004, bankruptcy was filed.
In 2007 the name Peill + Putzler was re-used for a while for the Wagenfeld lighting of the German lighting company of Paul Neuhaus.
Today the Peill + Putzler factory is called Glashütte Düren and is converted to many other businesses and conference centre.
Leclaire & Schäfer
The Gebruder Leclaire & Schäfer company was founded in 1893 in the light capital of Germany: Neheim. Despite the fact that the company has existed for a long time, there is hardly any information available. It is even more weird that you hardly find any lamp made by them on the internet. Hopefully that will change in the future, below is the label of the company. Gebrüder Leclaire & Schäfer presumably ended business in the 1980s.
DORIA
DORIA-WERK, DORIA-Werk – Beleuchtungsglas – Beleuchtungskörper orDoria-Werkstätten, Walter Donner GmbH & Co. KG was founded after the second World War in Fürth, near Nürnberg, Germany in 1948. The name changed over the years. The internal design team was named DORIA-Studio. The company is often named Doria Leuchten.
DORIA no longer exists. The firm was declared bankrupt in 1986.
Many thanks to Dave for all the research, pictures and enthusiasm.