Fat Lava Table Lamp

Materials: Purple glazed ceramics base. Conical white, orange & red fabric lampshade. Bakelite E27 socket.

Height: 37 cm / 14.56”

Lampshade Height: 23 cm / 9.05”

Width: ∅ 15 cm / 5.90”

Electricity: 1 bulb E27, 1 x 75 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb with an E27 socket can be used.

Period: 1960s, 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: To be appraised.

Manufacturer: Steuler-Keramik, Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany – attributed.

Other versions: This Fat Lava table lamp exists in all probability in several colours.

Often said that these lamps are designed by Cari Zalloni, but there is no proof for it. Zalloni designed several items for Steuler, but they are in a more “modern” design.

Fat Lava is a type of glazing that gives the impression that it is dripping and boiling in a similar way lava does.

This lamp is attributed to Steuler-Keramik, because of the similarities with other ceramics, but many German companies produced comparable vases and lamps, such as Scheurich, Bay Keramik, Carstens, Dümler & Breiden, Ceramano, Emons & Sohne, Gräflich Ortenburg, Gramann and so on. At least 40 companies made comparable ceramics.

Cari Zalloni

Cari Zalloni, born August 20, 1937 in Athens, Greece was a designer. His father was a Greek-Italian descent and his mother came from Austria. At first he lived in Greece, but the mother moved back to Vienna after the death of his father (1947). There he completed his high school diploma. He graduated from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna for a master’s degree in design. In 1960 he began his work as a designer.

Cari Zalloni went to Siena in Italy to design furniture, but after two years he went to Germany to work as an independent designer. He designed various glasses series for the ornamental ceramics company Steuler-Keramik and for the Glashütte Maximiliansau. He moved to Salzburg in 1962.

Zalloni was known as the chief designer of the eye optics company Cazal Eyewear. He also designed drinking glasses and winter sports equipment. Most recently he lived near Graz, Austria. He died from the effects of heart surgery in 2012.

Steuler

Steuler was founded by Georg Steuler in 1908. Georg Steuler developed the world’s first acid-resistant mastic (potash water glaze) and laid the foundation stone for Steuler Industriewerke (until 2010). Steuler-Keramik was a part of the company and was founded in 1917. Today it is named Steuler-Fliesen and they produce ceramic tiles. 

Today Steuler is a group of companies specialising in industrial corrosion protection, plant construction / environmental technology and tiles. The group develops, produces and installs corrosion-resistant and fire-resistant materials, as well as lining technologies for the chemical industry, in metal recovery plants, in power plants and special waste incineration plants as well as in the iron and steel industry.