Table lamp, aluminium and plastic, Milan, Oluce, 1979, designed by Vico Magistretti, 1977.

Table lamp, rust coloured aluminium resting on a black, plastic disc. The base is a plain cylinder surmounted by a conical top. The underside of the base is a black, plastic disc which is secured by three, plastic studs, at equidistant intervals round the rim. The shaft is a narrow steel tube, rising to support a hem-spherical lamp holder on which rests a large hemi-spherical aluminium shade. The lamp holder has two bulbs, angled downwards at 45° to the vertical. The interior of the shade is covered in white enamel. The exterior surfaces are treated in a rust colour, one of the four colour treatments offered in the first production batch. When illuminated, the lamp creates the impression of a solid hemisphere supported by the point of a cone on a cylinder. Instead of filtering light through the shade, it is directed downwards on to the base, drawing attention to the form of the lamp itself.

Given by the Property Services Agency (PSA), a division of the Department of the Environment.

Winner of the Compasso d'Oro, 1979.

Vico Magistretti (1920-2006) graduated as an architect in Milan in 1945 and throughout his career made a major contribution as an architect, town planner and designer to post war Italian design. He has been frequently published in the major Italian design magazines such as Domus, Ottagono and elsewhere. This lamp, winner of the Compasso d'Oro award in 1979, can be regarded as an outstanding example of progressive, Italian lighting design of the 1970s.

M.39-1992