A Perfect Pair: Figurine Lamps and Hoffmann!

Yesterday's designer influence post centered around a designer who was one of a larger group of unsung heroes of our design history past. A group of folks whose work contributes mightily to the world, but who isn't well known. Will we go with a similarly categorizable Swank Lighting lamp pair in today's perfect pair? You'll have to read to find out! 

Though we loved a lot about Josef Hoffmann's work, which could be described as sensual, curvy and with hints of Art Nouveau, we really enjoyed his upholstered pieces that featured contrasting welts that made each piece appear to have slick vertical pinstripes. This particular Pair of High Back Armchairs by Josef Hoffmann is from Italy from 1911, and we really love the colors used, and how the curves are really highlighted by the stripes.

 Vintage Murano Figurine lamps aren't exactly the most popular form of vintage Murano lamps to have survived into today's trends, but you have to admit they have a certain charm to them. This pair of Vintage Murano Figurine Lamps by Barovier & Toso from Italy in the 1950s especially. Made in a rich, burnt umber color, they have a lot of personality, great shapes and would look superb in a lot of different home styles.

 

So why did we choose to mix a pair of Josef Hoffmann's High Back Armchairs with a pair of Vintage Murano Figurine Lamps by Barovier & Toso? Lots of reasons. We think the rich, burnt umber color of the figurines goes great with the accent stripes of the armchairs. But mostly, we just like the idea of pairing figurines with these chairs. Art Nouveau was all about celebrating curves and the female form, so figurines are a perfect complement. And, we just like how all the curves of the chair go well with the curves of the lamps. A perfect pair, we say!

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

A Perfect Pair: Swank and Tiffany & Co!

You know what makes a great complement to Tiffany & Co.'s amazing products and gorgeous retails stores? Why-Swank Lighting lamps will be gracing the tables of retail stores around the country.

The pictures in this post are of our lamps at their new Jacksonville Florida location. We shipped another one to Beverly Hills, California and we will publish photos of it in a week or so. Isn't this so exciting!

And we couldn't help but notice that there are a few more Swank Lamps we could see in a Tiffany & Co. retail store-so if you want to incorporate their great blue, here are some for you to look at:

Acidato Stacked Ball Murano Lamps on Lucite Platter $3,500
This beautiful pair of sculptured ball Murano lamps is in mint condition. The labels identify them as 'Acqua Marina Ghiacci Satinate' - iced blue-green etched satin glass. The balls, with a semi rough texture to the outside, are joined together by satin nickel wafers. The lamps have been recently rebuilt using solid brass parts that have been finished in satin nickel.

Baby Blue Vintage Murano Table Lamps in a Pulegoso Net Pattern $4,000
Beautiful pulegoso Murano lamps blown with a quilted net pattern by Galliano Ferro in the 1950's. Loaded with tiny air bubbles that give the lamp that icy look. Great texture and imposing size - these are quite the chunky pair! Made In Italy paperstamp.

Barbini Icy Blue Opaline Murano Lamps on Double Lucite $3,300
These icy blue opaline Murano lamps were hand blown by Barbini in the 1950s. The color is that wonderfully soft and intense blue that really glows when the sun hits the glass. These lamps have been completely rebuilt using new solid brass hardware with a polished nickel finish. The original importer's label is still attached to one of the lamps.

A Perfect Pair: Swank lamps and Hanging Fixtures!

Normally for our Perfect Pair posts we partner a fabulous pair of Swank Lighting lamps with a gorgeous piece of furniture (usually Mid-Century Modern). We do this to show you (and show off) just how great our lamps look with any style.

It's not just furniture that our lamps go with, though. Many people decorating their homes struggle with the concept of how to "match" or choose different light fixtures in a space. Should your pendant hanging lights match your sconces match your table lamps? While there's no right or wrong answer, we like to say go with your gut, and choose lights that complement each other based on color, shape, texture or style. 

We took some light fixtures from Danish design influence Poul Henningsen and paired them with great Swank Lighting lamps. You'll see that even though they all possess different styles, any of these pairs would look smashing together in one room. Don't you agree?!

1) With the complicated look of this fixture, we chose a smoothness of Vintage Murano Lamps by Seguso in Lavender Orchid Frost because it would be calming but also have a burst of fun color!

2) Another complicated fixture, but this time with a warm, copper finish, we went with a bold Swank lamp, Vintage Swedish Blown Glass Lamp by Marbro, with equally beautiful copper details!

3) This fixture is more simple and a creamy white, so we went a little bolder and with more texture by choosing Vintage Green Stacked Murano Lamps by Barovier & Toso.

4) This simple fixture needed something with geometry and sass, and this pair of Classic Edwin Cole for Stiffel Wood and Brass Table Lamps is the perfect match.

A Perfect Pair: Zanuso and Swank

Yesterday's designer influence was the very inspiring Marco Zanuso, an Italian architect and furniture designer whose work made a big impact on the Italian modern design movement, and in turn, a big hit on the modern design movement everywhere. We chose a very textured, patterned pair of chairs to go with a very textured pair of Swank Lighting lamps.

This Pair of 1950s Italian Armchairs are a perfect example of the kind of style Zanuso produced in the furniture design arena. This pair of chairs have a fabulous, thickly textured tweed-like upholstery (new) and the whole body of the chair is placed on dainty black lacquered legs with brass casters. Now, we should say that these chairs aren't actual Marco Zanuso chairs, just made in the style, but we think you can agree they perfectly embody his design philosophy.

 

We have been in such the mood for pure white lamps, and this Swank Lighting pair of Vintage Murano Pulegoso Lamps by Galliano Ferro in White Ice, from Italy from the 1950s are a great specimen. Of course, as lovely as the milky, creamy white glass of these lamps is, the netted pattern of the glass is also quite the star. According to Swank, The Pulegoso process traps tiny air bubbles within the glass, giving these lamps a frosty look. 

 

We love that both the chairs and the lamps both have a lot of going on for them. They both have arresting colors-one a multi-colored red with lots of specks of all kinds of colors, and the other a deep, stunning white. They also both feature fabulous textures and patterns that give the surface of each one of them a punch of interest. Together they are fabulous!

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we've got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

A Perfect Pair: Aubock and Swank!

Carl Aubock was a major player in the Mid-Century Modern scene and also a huge modernism influence from his home country of Austria. One look at his modern, natural and unique furniture pieces and accessories and you can see why. We chose a piece of his that really sung to us, and paired it with some Swank Lighting lamps that took our breath away the first time we saw them.

You know, not many people have the need for serving carts anymore. But before you dismiss this Cantilever Serving Cart by Carl Aubock as obsolete, remember that you don't have to use a furniture piece the way that it was originally intended. This gorgeous wooden piece of furniture is from the 1950s and features a two-tiered cart in solid walnut with brass details and wheels. We'd use this as a sweet side table alongside a couch or lounge chair. It's got great outlines and would make a fun, functional item.

It should come as no surprise to hear that we love just about everyone of Swank Lighting's own lamps, but every now and then we see a pair that absolutely screams "I'm yours! I'm yours!" That's what Swank Lighting's Spotted Chartreuse Vintage Glass Lamps did for us. We know they're not made from anyone particularly famous, but there's just something about that lemon-lime color, that soft, circular, indented quilted pattern and that nice, classic, vintage bowling ball shape to the body. We love it all!

You probably won't be able to fit both of these lamps onto Carl Aubock's Cantilever Serving Cart (or really any of his pieces, for that matter) but we do think with a little maneuvering you might could swing one. And believe us, it would be worth the try. Both the serving cart and lamps exhibit strong hip and vintage vibes that we think together would out of this world!

Swank Lighting is an amazing resource not just for the best vintage Murano glass lamps on the market today, but also a wonderful resource for interior design inspiration and a great place to get an education about past and present designers. Keep up-to-date with everything we do on our Facebook page and our twitter.

A Perfect Pair: Swank and Noguchi!

Isamu Noguchi's span of influence over American culture and modern furniture design in the Mid-Century was evident and strong, so it wasn't difficult to choose a furniture piece that perfectly represented him. It was a little more difficult choosing a Swank Lighting lamp to go with one of his pieces, but we think we've done it:

This particular Cyclone Table, designed by Isamu Noguchi, might be one of the first ever issued. That makes this piece quite rare and sought after, but also proof as to how high-quality his work was, as well. This piece still looks good as new, and is still relevant in a design sense. We love the partnership between the size of the table top and the base, and just love how the piece at once seems to be very showy but also not take up too much attention at all.

Swank Lighting's Teal Blue Vintage Murano Table Lamps from Italy in the 1950s are a great example of one of our favorite Murano glass lamp shapes: the inverted teardrop. There's just something so classic about this shape; it is slightly eye-provoking since it's surprising to see the larger and heavier part of a base up top rather than on bottom. The lamp is further exciting because of it's beautiful translucent Teal Blue that is both cool and warm. There's also a subtle pattern to the glass that we really appreciate texturally.

So we know just based on how Isamu Noguchi's table is shaped and sized that you probably won't be placing this pair of Swank Lighting Teal Blue Vintage Murano Table Lamps on it, but we definitely want to see these lamps and furniture piece in the same room together! Like the lamp, the table also has a top heavy aspect to it, and we appreciate how the subtle, faceted pattern to the lamps is mirrored in the wonderful cyclone metal wire base of the table. We think this is really a perfect pair!

Swank Lighting is an amazing resource not just for the best vintage Murano glass lamps on the market today, but also a wonderful resource for interior design inspiration and a great place to get an education about past and present designers. Keep up-to-date with everything we do on our Facebook page and our twitter.

A Perfect Pair: Scarpa and Swank!

Yesterday's designer influence wasn't a new name to us; we had heard Carlo Scarpa mentioned as a great Italian architect. But somehow we just never noticed that he was an amazing furniture and glass designer (even though Swank Lighting has even sold some of his designs!). We fell in love with a certain desk and stool Scarpa designed, and think you'll get a kick out of what we paired it with...

This Desk and Stool by Carlo Scarpa was made in Italy in 1942, and features a stunningly simple yet effective shape. Most of it looks like a simple, Mid-Century modernly-shaped table and stool, but it is topped by the loveliest detail: a slight curving of the top that evokes images of Japanese pagoda rooftops. It's a subtle thing, but it really lends a wonderful feel to the whole piece. It would look great in a space with Japanese style, but also would look good in a modern or traditional room.

These Swank Lighting Vintage Almond-Shaped Venini Sommerso Murano Lamps are also from Italy from the 1940s. These lamps, while obviously beautiful, should also be noted for their rare size-extremely tall-and their heft-they've got quite a mass to them. This makes them unique and special. Starting out as a white inner piece with 24KT gold dust and diagonal stripes of blue applied, it was then enveloped by crystal clear Murano glass to create the glass' most amazing look. And, if we're being honest here, these lamps were designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini!

So, this might be the first time we've ever paired a designer's furniture with the same designer's lamps-we didn't just do it because the same designer created both, though. We chose the Carlo Scarpa Desk and Stool and the Swank Lighting Vintage Almond-Shaped Venini Murano Lamps because they genuinely look great together. They both feature sleek lines with subtle curves, and we think the color of the desk and stool really makes the lighter, paler colors of the lamp pop. What do you think?!

Swank Lighting is an amazing resource not just for the best vintage Murano glass lamps on the market today, but also a wonderful resource for interior design inspiration and a great place to get an education about past and present designers. Keep up-to-date with everything we do on our Facebook page and our twitter.

A Perfect Pair: Tommi Parzinger and Swank Lighting!

We really admired the world of eclectic modern designer Tommi Parzinger, even though he dabbled and mixed all sorts of different elements for his pieces. Loving his casegoods like cabinets, credenzas and bookcases the most, we stopped when we came across this modern cabinet. We think you'll love what Swank Lighting lamp we chose to place on top it.

 

 

As we mentioned, Tommi's overarching common element in his design work was that there wasn't an overarching design element. He mixed and matched a variety of styles to create his own unique aesthetic. This Tommi Parzinger Modern cabinet is a great example. Sleek lines and a simple shape introduce you to its modernity, but then a gorgeous green leather covers the front. Brass pulls give such an air of sophistication. And surprise! The inside is painted a shocking coral lacquer. From 1955. 

 

 

These types of Swank Lighting lamps are such a rare favorite of ours, like Swank Lighting's Table Coral Lamp on Lucite. From Egypt from the 1970s. We are always so amazed by how beautiful and delicate coral specimens look; it's like having a piece of a science museum in your home. And it brings such an amazing texture to whatever room you bring it in. This one, placed on a thick Lucite base, really has a great modern look to it.

I think based on our combination photo you can see why we placed this Tommi Parzinger cabinet with this Swank Lighting Coral Lamp; they just add such sophistication and beauty to one another. The intricate details of the cabinet correspond with the delicate textures of the coral, and frankly, they are both so interesting that together they are absolutely fascinating.

Swank Lighting is an amazing resource not just for the best vintage Murano glass lamps on the market today, but also a wonderful resource for interior design inspiration and a great place to get an education about past and present designers. Keep up-to-date with everything we do on our Facebook page and our twitter.

A Perfect Pair: Larsen, Madsen and Swank!

It’s true we were pretty bowled over by these wood armchairs upholstered in black leather by designers Larsen and Madsen. And while they were close to our favorites, we decided to go with another Mid-Century Modern furniture piece of theirs for today’s Perfect Pair instead. Will you think it’s an odd time of year for the Swank Lighting lamps we chose to pair with it? Read on to see for yourself!

 

This pricey (almost $50,000) Oak and Cane Bench by Larsen and Madsen was made in Denmark in the 1950s, under the company run by cabinetmaker Willy Beck. It’s hard to even decide what we love about this piece most. The materials, cane and oak, make this piece feel so close to nature, and the resulting color is warm, light and flexible enough to work with any color palette. But the modern shape is also wonderful; that detail of the sloping back is fabulous.

If we’ve used this Swank Lighting pair of Orange Long Neck Vintage Murano Lamps by Seguso in a Perfect Pair post before, you’ll just have to excuse us; we love them! Made in Italy in the 1960s they feature the most awesome bright orange color that you can possibly imagine. It’s not just their hue that’s rocking, either; their shape is thin, skinny, sky-high and dynamic. Placed on Lucite bases they are perfect!

Though fall is clearly here in our neck of the woods and we’ve been inspired enough to post about a lot of fall color palettes and fall textures, we still miss summer a bit. It was a great summer, and summer colors are fresh and bright and always bring a little cheer to a room. We think that’s why we gravitated toward this combination of natural materials and the bright orange green. They just seemed so new and fun, and hey, who says you can’t have a little summer fun in your home all year round?

Love what you see in this post but want more? Like fun perfect pairs, designer influence profiles and profiles of contemporary designers? Thank goodness for you we’ve got a Facebook page and tweet a lot; you can keep up with everything Swank Lighting does.

A Perfect Pair: Magnusson and Swank Lighting!

Yesterday’s influence focused on some much-needed femininity in the form of the Mid-Century Modern Swedish designer Greta Magnusson Grossman. Combining slick and sleek lines, interesting proportions and just a dash of asymmetry, Grossman spent 40 years creating an incredible body of design work. And we think we’ve found just the pair of Swank Lighting lamps to light up one of her great consoles.

This Greta Grossman Console from Sweden from the 1950s is a great example of Grossman’s versatility as a furniture designer. Masculine, heavy, dark—this piece is pretty far away from the idea of “Swedish Modern” that you envision, but yet it also sort of completely embodies it, too. Lacquered dark slate gray and ebony colors make this piece glossy and bold, and there’s a caned bottom shelf that really lends a touch of natural sophistication. This piece is also a great example of how high-quality all of her work was.

We’re used to showcasing gorgeous Swank Lighting vintage Murano lamps with bold, exciting and blood-boiling bright colors on this blog, and we think these lamps being the opposite of that is what attracted us to them in the first place. Featuring a smooth, fresh and clean satin white finish, they have a soft, rounded shape. Placed on a Lucite base, these lamps are downright ethereal in a barely there sort of sense. From Italy from the 1950s, these lamps could easily be placed in any interior.

With such a strong, uniform, dark wood color, you might be tempted to throw a bright-colored pair of lamps into the mix to shake things up a bit. Don’t overlook the power of a crisp, clean white. That’s why we chose this pair of lamps; they’re so strong because they’re so unassuming. No one ever worries about white clashing with anything, or messing up any color palettes. But here, with this console, on its own, it becomes the ultimate color. And, it just looks clean and fresh. Together this console and pair of Swank Lighting lamps make for a tailored, sophisticated look.

Swank Lighting is an amazing resource not just for the best vintage Murano glass lamps in the market today, but also a wonderful resource for interior design inspiration and a great place to get an education about past and present designers. Keep up-to-date with everything we do on our Facebook page and our twitter.