Vintageinfo – All About Vintage Lighting

Placuna Placenta Table Lamps

Materials: Hexagonal brass base & rod. Globe lampshade made of shells from the windowpane oyster mounted on a brass soldered frame. Pull-cord switch. Brass E27 sockets.

Height: 68 cm / 26.77”

Width: ∅ 35 cm / 13.77”

Base: ∅12 cm / 4.72”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 75 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.

Period: 1900s until now, this pair is from the 1970s.

Designer: To be appraised.

Manufacturer: Rausch Leuchten, Germany.

Other versions: These placuna placenta table lamps exists as a flush mount, a wall lamp, a ceiling lamp… Every light you can imagine.

Rausch

These lamps were acquired in Germany some years ago. Capiz lamps were sold by the Rausch company in Germany. Unfortunately no information can be found about it.

Capiz

These lamps are often described as lamps designed by the great Belgium artist Willy Daro, but they are not. These type of lamps were in production long before he was born. The lampshades are made in the Philippines, special in the eponymous province of Capiz.

Lamps like these were sold by almost every light company in Europe at some time in the 1960s and 1970s, because they were extremely popular thanks to Verner Panton who used these shells for his FUN chandeliers he created in 1964 for the Lüber company in Switzerland.

The shells (Placuna placenta) have been used for thousands of years as a glass substitute because of their durability and translucence.

The windowpane oyster used for these lamps are often named “mother of pearl”, but that’s another shell. Mother of pearl is “nacre” and it’s the inside of a different shell and is not translucent. The outside of a pearl is from the same organic material.

An artisan creating lamps

Placuna Placenta Table Lamps - Capiz Artisan