Ecolight Mushroom Table Lamp Home

Materials: Concave round aluminium base. White acrylic lampshade. Aluminium lid on top. Some metal parts. Bakelite E27 socket.

Height: 43 cm / 16.92”

Width: ∅ 43 cm / 16.92”

Base: ∅ 19 cm / 7.48”

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: 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: Gaetano Sciolari in 1968.

Manufacturer: Ecolight, Milan, Italy.

Other versions: This Ecolight mushroom table lamp Home exists in several colours. It was also made as a floor lamp.

This lamp was designed in 1968. In the same year Gaetano Sciolari designed several other lamps for the Ecolight company, such as the Toy lamp series. You can find it over here, on Vintageinfo.

Gaetano Sciolari

Angelo Gaetano Sciolari graduated with a degree in architecture but wanted to be a filmmaker. This course came to an abrupt end when in 1949 his father suddenly died and he took over the Sciolari lighting company at the age of 22.

His first designs in the 1950’s were Sputnik inspired pendants; of course it was the space age.

In the 1960’s he created refined, futuristic and sharp classical style chandeliers. Lines were clean and sculptural and materials such as crystal and ice glass sparkled with a voluptuously luxurious coolness and he started combining brass with chrome.

He led the family business with a passionate vision and within years, he expanded the business and started working with other light companies worldwide.

Gaetano Sciolari created lights for Stilnovo, Ecolight, Stilkronen (Italy), Lightolier and Progress Lighting (USA), Metalarte (Spain), S.A. Boulanger (Belgium), Helestra and Leola (West Germany), Lyfa (Denmark) and some other companies and of course for his own Italian family business; the Sciolari company in Rome and Milan; where all the lighting business at that time was present.

Sciolari was the founder and the first president of the trade association of Italian manufacturers of lighting fixtures, the AIDI. The Associazione Italiana di Illuminazione was founded in 1958 and still exists today.

Ecolight

Ecolight was a brand of the Valenti company.

Valenti was founded in Milan in 1929 as a metalworking company.  It became one of the most important companies of the Italian design movement under the leadership of the brothers Diego and Renzo Phigi.

Famous lighting produced by Valenti: Medusa floor and table lamp, design Olaf Von Bohr in 1968. The Pistillo flush mount/wall lamp, design Studio Tetrarch in 1969. The Medusa lamp was also sold under the Ecolight label.

Ecolight was born in 1968. Many lamps were sold as Valenti and also as Ecolight. This Pillola lamp was sold under both names. Ditto for the Squadra wall lamp. The business was run by Carla and Laura, the daughters of Renzo.

In 2013, SP light and Design was born from the desire of Carla and her husband Luciano to pursue the family business, joined by their eldest daughter, Eleonora.

SP light and Design still sells some of their design icons such as the Hebi table lamp, Pistillo and Pistillino wall lamps and the Medusa floor lamp.