Adjustable 1950s Stilux Desk Lamp

Materials: Triangular white Carrara marble base with a built-in switch with a brass ornamental screw. Adjustable brass rod, partial painted green. Brass joints, parts and 2 ornamental wing screws. Green painted mushroom lampshade with a hole in the middle, painted white inside. Brass ring and metal grid. 2 ornamental brass ball screws and small rectangular plate on top. Some metal parts. Black Bakelite E27 lamp socket.

Height: 40 cm / 15.74” – adjustable

Width: 48 cm / 18.89”

Depth: 40 cm / 15.74”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 60 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used. Not a specific one preferred.

Period: 1950s, 1960s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Oscar Torlasco – attributed.

Manufacturer: Stilux, Milan, Italy.

Other versions: This adjustable 1950s Stilux desk lamp comes in several colours and some variations and a smaller size. It was also made with a round metal base.

Oscar Torlasco

Born in Rome, Italy in 1934, Oscar Torlasco designed many beautiful lamps. The most well known are the lamps he designed for the Lumi company. Torlasco designed for several Italian lighting manufacturers including Esperia, Lumi, Lamperti, Stilkronen and Stilux. Although it’s known that Torlasco designed lamps for Stilux, it’s uncertain which models exactly. However, it’s entirely plausible that this lamp is his, as it was designed entirely in his style.

Most of his designs are from the 1950s and 60s. For many lamps, he uses optic lenses for spreading/diffusing the light. It is his trademark. In 1959 Torlasco received the Italian design award, the “Compasso d’Oro ” (Golden Compass) for his Genova 4053 street lighting. The lamps were in production by Fabbrica Apparecchi Illuminazione Greco S.p.A. Oscar Torlasco passed away in 2004.

Stilux

Unfortunately, very little information is available about the Stilux lighting company. The company no longer exists. According to Ennio Fedele, a former Arredoluce dealer in Trieste, Stilux was founded shortly after the Second World War by Bruno Gatta (1904–1976) from Verona, who developed lamps for both domestic and industrial use. This is written in the book Arredoluce 1943–1987: Catalogue Raisonné. Bruno Gatta later founded Stilnovo in 1946 in Lainate, an industrial suburb of Milan. What happened next with Stilux and Stilnovo, and Gatta’s further role, remains a mystery for now. Fortunately, there is much more information about Stilnovo.

A company called Stilux also exists in Milan, but it has nothing to do with lighting: “Stilux is a company that deals with professional printing and paper converting solutions for communication.”

There was also a company named Sti-lux that produced lamps in the 1990s, but that firm no longer exists either.

There is also a company called Stil-lux Lampadari based in Florence. Founded in 1972 by Marco and Lucia Innocenti, this company is still active. It is responsible, among other things, for the glass-tube “chain” lamps designed by Marco Innocenti, which are almost always attributed to AV Mazzega from Murano and supposedly designed by Aldo Nason. Today, the company operates under the name Stillux and still produces these “Lighting Lab” lamps.

If you have more information about the original Stilux company, please let us know via the contact form and help improve this website’s accuracy.