Herda 1980s Desk Lamp

Materials: White painted metal (iron) round flat base. White painted folded metal rod. White painted round conical aluminium lampshade. Several black plastic parts. Bakelite E27 socket.

Lampshade: 13,5 cm / 5.31”

Height: 30 cm / 11.81”

Base: ∅ 13 cm / 5.11”

Electricity: 1 bulb E14, 1 x 40 watt maximum, 110/220 volt.
Any type of light bulb can be used, not a specific one preferred.

Period: 1980s, 1990s.

Designer: To be appraised.

Manufacturer: Massive, Mortsel, Kontich, Wommelgem, Belgium.

Other versions: This Herda 1980s desk lamp exists in many colours. Several different lamps were produced, all with the same base but with a another lampshade.

In The Netherlands these desk lamps were sold by Herda Verlichting BV from Amsterdam. This desk lamp has a Herda label.

Massive sold them in Belgium and some other European countries.

Herda

Herda Verlichting BV (Herda Lighting company) was a owned by the Dutch “brothers Daniels” family and was located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Founded in 1946 by Henk en Rob Daniels. The name Herda is the abbreviation of the surname of Mr. Herwaarden and the surname of the Daniels brothers. Mr Herwaarden had arranged the permit (which was very difficult after the war). The company was declared bankrupt on June 24, 1997.

Herda had some top designers employed, including Willem van Oyen Sr. who is famous for the lamps he designed for the Raak Amsterdam company, also from The Netherlands.

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 in the late 1980s, 1990s by VLM Components from Buccinasco near Milan in Italy.

VLM Components was founded in 1945 in Buccinasco, a small village near Milan, Italy. 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.

Many thanks to Sven for the pictures and enthusiasm.