Big Ball brass floor lamp – 1970s

Floor lamp in brass and gilt aluminium, topped with a large blown-glass globe housing 4 lights, Doria publisher, early 1970s.

New rewiring carried out by our restorer: cable, foot switch, and plug are new.

• 4 E27 LED Gold bulbs included.
• Some normal signs of wear on the brass base (see photo)
• H 120 cm x glass globe diameter 41 cm
• Base diameter 32 cm.

Doria brass and bubbled glass floor lamp – 1970s

This tall floor lamp, which can also be used as a floor lamp or as an imposing table lamp, is a German production by Doria dating from the 1970s. Its construction combines a circular base and three gilt-finished metal uprights with a spectacular clear glass globe threaded with numerous air bubbles.

“Big Ball” floor lamp, 1972 edition.

Doria: a lighting manufacturer and also a glassworks

Doria was founded by Walter Donner in 1945; a lesser-known aspect of the company’s history is that Doria was not simply a lighting assembler: the firm also operated its own glassworks and employed glassblowers, engravers, glass painters, and metalworkers.

This organisation helps to clarify the importance of glass in Doria lighting. The firm notably specialised in globes, tubes, and blown-crystal elements whose texture directly transforms light diffusion. During the 1960s, a period of strong international expansion, the company had around 300 employees and developed domestic lighting as well as large architectural installations.

Bubbled glass as an optical element

On this design lamp, the bubbles trapped within the thickness of the glass are not mere surface decoration. They break up and refract the light from the bulbs placed at the centre of the globe, which is also reflected on the cluster of gilded spheres arranged around the light sources. This composition directly evokes Sputnik lights, which saw significant development in the 1960s and 1970s. At the same time, the combination of clear glass, gilt metal, and a deliberately spectacular register also links this floor lamp to the decorative vocabulary of the Hollywood Regency style. Switched off, the light retains the transparency and lightness of a glass object; switched on, the air inclusions catch the points of light while the gilded balls multiply reflections, giving the globe far greater depth and presence.

The inclusions in the blown-glass globe break up and refract the light from the bulbs.

This glasswork is characteristic of part of European lighting production in the 1970s, a decade during which publishers readily combined thick glass, chromed metal or a brass finish with simple geometric forms. Here, the large transparent sphere and the vertical arrangement of the uprights give the light an aesthetic that is both luxurious and very close to the Space Age imagination.

Inside the globe, several light points set at different heights form a small autonomous composition. Once the lamp is lit, the bulbs and metal elements are reflected and multiplied in the bubbles of the glass: the light source thus becomes as visually important as the globe that surrounds it.

A Doria lamp still accompanied by its original label

The underside of the base retains its original DORIA metal label. You can also make out a stamped reference beginning with its serial number 1544 followed by 72, probably its year of production.

The silver Doria label, its serial number, and the 1972 date.

This large vintage and design table lamp thus stands out as much for the quality of its blown glass as for its sculptural construction. It embodies a particularly decorative example of Doria’s 1970s production and of the place occupied by glass in design lighting of this period.

Thanks to its spectacular spherical globe in bubbled glass, the model is sometimes nicknamed “Big Ball”, a name that aptly sums up its visual presence. Despite its dimensions, the transparency of the glass and the slenderness of its structure allow it to integrate easily into very different settings. In a living room, it sits equally well alongside a Scandinavian sofa as a classic or contemporary settee. In an office, an entryway, or a shop display, its luminous volume, golden reflections, and immediately recognisable silhouette make it a true eye-catcher, able to draw the gaze instantly without taking up much floor space.