Blue Egg Bedside Table Lamp
Materials: Frosted translucent blue-purple hand blown oval conical glass egg-style lampshade. White painted Bakelite E14 socket.
Height: 23 cm / 9.05”
Width: ∅ 15 cm / 5.90”
Electricity: 1 bulb E14, 1 x 40 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb with an E14 screw base can be used. Not a specific one preferred.
Period: 1980s, 1990s.
Designer: To be appraised.
Manufacturer: Massive, Mortsel, Kontich and Wommelgem, Belgium – attributed.
Other versions: This Blue egg bedside table lamp was probably made in several colours.
This table lamp is in all probability produced in China for Massive, Belgium. No label present. Massive sold many glass eggs over the years. Another example can be found over here on Vintageinfo.
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.
Massive sold many lamps made by others. Peill + Putzler from Germany and Yamada Shomei from Japan produced lamps for Massive, to name a few. Many other lighting companies did.
VLM Components
All the electric parts were made by VLM Components in the late 80s, early 90s. The company was founded in 1945 in Buccinasco, a small village near Milan, Italy. The company became famous for the switches they produce since 1968, designed by Achille Castiglioni. You can find them over here. VLM is part of the Relco Group, founded in 1967. Today they are the owners of the brands Relco, Leuci, Relco Lighting, VLM and Segno.
Links (external links open in a new window)
Massive Lighting on Wikipedia (in Dutch)
Vintageinfo
Some other egg table lamps
Massive bluebird green marbled egg table lamp
Travertine ostrich egg table lamp