Metalarte Tatù Table Lamp

Materials: White ABS plastic tubes and parts. Black plastic parts. Cast iron counterweight inside the round base. Adjustable tubular lampshade. Cut glass lens. E14 lamp socket.

Height: 25 cm / 9.84”

Width: ∅ 20,5 cm / 8.07”

Base: ∅ 8 cm / 3.14”

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: 1970s – Mid-Century Modern.

Designer: André Ricard in 1972.

Manufacturer: Sociedad Anonima Metalarte, Paseo de la Ribera 115, Canovelles, Barcelona, Spain.

Other versions: The Metalarte Tatù table lamp exists in white, yellow, black and red.

André Ricard

André Ricard Sala was born June 18, 1929 in Barcelona, Spain. Ricard is an industrial designer. He designed mostly for Spanish companies, but also for firms such as Gaggia (coffee machines), Nestlé, Moulinex, Paco Rabanne, Pierre Fabre, Milus, Pierre Junod, Baume & Mercier and others.

He designed many lamps for Metalarte. This Tatu desktop spotlight from 1971 is his most famous. It received an iF Design Award in 1972.

André Ricard received many awards, to name a few: the Spanish National Design Prize in 1987, the Catalan Saint George Cross and the IOC Olympic Order in 1993, in France the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1998 and the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 2011.

Metalarte

The Metalarte company was founded in 1932 in Cannoveles, some 30 km/19 mi from Barcelona in Catalonia, Spain. In the 1960s and 1970s it renewed its catalogue and started working with external designers and companies. For instance, they sold lamps produced by Louis Poulsen from Denmark and Arteluce, O-Luce and Stilnovo from Italy. Today the company is part of the Luxonia group. Together with the Troll and Sagelux brands.

Designers that worked for Metalarte are, among others: André Ricard, Enric Franch, Josep Lluscà, Estudi Blanc, Josep Aregall, Oscar and Sergi Devesa, Antoni Arola, Lievore Altherr Molina, Ricard Ferrer, George W. Hansen, Héctor Serrano, Jordi Llopis, Ana Mir, Emili Padrós, Otto Canalda and Ramón Úbeda.

Santa & Cole

Since 2018 the red and white version are back in production in a LED version. They are sold by another Spanish company: Santa & Cole.

Text from the Santa & Cole website:

The tatu, or armadillo, is a friendly mammal with a shell on its back that protects it when it rolls up into a ball. On a transoceanic flight, while reading about Argentinean wildlife and contemplating how the light above his seat did not disturb his sleeping wife next to him, André Ricard came up with this lamp that became a pop-art icon in Europe.

Interview with André Ricard on the Santa & Cole website in connection with the re-edition of the Tatú table lamp. You can read it over here.