Harvey Guzzini Lucerna Floor Lamp

Materials: Round & flat chromed metal (iron) base. Cast iron bottom. Chrome rod and parts. Clear acrylic wire holder. Orange acrylic mushroom lampshade. White acrylic layer on the inside. 2 Bakelite E27 sockets.

Height: 160 cm / 62.99”

Lampshade: ∅ 48 / 18.89”

Base: ∅ 23 cm / 9.05”

Electricity: 2 bulbs E27, 2 x 60 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.

Period: 1960s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Luigi Massoni in 1966.

Manufacturer: Harvey Guzzini, via Mariano Guzzini, 37. 62019, Recanati, Italy. Today named iGuzzini. 

Other versions: The Harvey Guzzini Lucerna floor lamp exists in 2 sizes with two different bases and in several colours. Also pendant lamps and table lamps were made. Other lamps were made with the same chrome arc on top, but they all have different names. The pendant lamp is named Zurigo, you can find it over here.

Production from 1966 until 1976. This one is model: 1015/1. The lamp with the wider base is 1015/2. It is an early production. Later it changed into 4504 and 4505. A 4505 can be found over here.

Often famous designers are linked to this lamp, but it is a design by Luigi Massoni.

The Lucerna floor lamps were also sold by Meblo. Meblo named these lamps Rab 1 and Rab 2. Rab 1 is the floor lamp with the big lampshade.

The Belgian company Massive made a copy of this floor lamp. You can find it over here. Also Stilux from Milan made a copy. It has a thin translucent acrylic lampshade and a switch inside.

iGuzzini 

iGuzzini illuminazione was established in June 1958 by Raimondo Guzzini (born 1928) under the name Harvey Creazioni. Harvey is derived from the famous movie ‘Harvey’ with James Stuart and the invisible rabbit Harvey from 1950.
The initial production of enamelled copper objects was supplemented by decorative luminaires.
In the early sixties it became a family business when his 5 brothers joined the company. In 1962 Luigi Massoni was attracted to lead the design team. He worked for Fratelli Guzzini and Harvey Guzzini until 1976. Luigi Massoni designed many iconic lamps in that period.
The company still exists and changed the name in 1974 into iGuzzini and in 1981 to iGuzzini illuminazione.

Luigi Massoni

Luigi Massoni was born in Milan, Italy on January 22nd 1930 and was a architect and designer. For some thirty years, he has also worked as a freelance journalist and editor. He lived in Recanati, near Milan were he died in 2013.

After years of education at the “Collettivo di Architettura” of Milan and his first professional experiences between 1953 and 1955, he began working for Alessi and created his famous Bar set. First in 1957 together with Carlo Mazzeri the cocktail shaker and a bit later the Serie 5 containers.

Together with architect Carlo De Carli, he founded “Il Mobile Italiano”. In 1959, associating a group of furniture industrialists, he founded “Mobilia”, one of the first centers for the promotion of Italian design.

Also in 1959, he began working for Boffi Cucine, realizing some of the first modular systems for the home and kitchen. For Boffi he created: the Dogu kitchen and bathroom, the Xila kitchen and bathroom, the Punto bathroom, the E15 kitchen, the AL15 kitchen and the A1 cupboard.

He was editor and director of “Marmo Tecnica Architettura”  from 1956 until 1963. Thanks to his publications, he plays a key role in the development of industrial and craft-based businesses. His works are published in the most important Italian and foreign magazines and have been awarded numerous prizes and acknowledgements.

Designers

Designers that worked for Harvey Guzzini – iGuzzini are, among others: Giò Ponti, Rodolfo Bonetto, Bruno Gecchelin, Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Gae Aulenti, Piero Castiglioni, Jean-Michel Wilmotte, Mario Cucinella, Dean Skira, Renzo Piano, Massimo Iosa Ghini, Enzo Eusebi, Massimiliano e Doriana Fuksas, Jean-Marie Duthilleul, Maurici Ginès, Maurici Ginès, Roberto Pamio, Paul Andreau, Felice Ragazzo, Giuseppe De Goetzen, Franco Bresciani, Carlo Urbinati, Giuseppe Cormio, Ermanno Lampa, Sergio Brazzoli and of course Luigi Massoni.

MEBLO

Harvey Guzzini lamps were also sold under the brand name MEBLO. MEBLO is a Slovenian (Yugoslavia) company.

The MEBLO factory was founded in 1948 when Gorizia craftsmen joined forces and founded the Furniture Factory, later named Edvard Kardelj (communist leader and national hero of World War II). In 1950 the name changed in MEBLO.

At first, they made exclusive furniture, which was later supplemented with upholstered furniture, lighting, plastic and mattresses.

MEBLO also produced plastic chairs and tables, plasticised metal garden tables and chairs, plastic chairs for sports halls, plastic flower beds, mirrors and plastic bathroom equipment (design by Luigi Massoni), wooden set of club tables, shelves, buffet carts and mirrors (design by Gianfranco Frattini).

The last lamps were produced around 1990, 1991 until the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Today the company is named MebloJOGI. It only produces mattresses for beds.

Sijaj Hrastnik

Before Meblo started to produce Harvey Guzzini lamps, Sijaj Hrastnik, another Slovenian company sold them in Yugoslavia.

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