Palm Tree Bamboo Lamps, Tommaso Barbi style

“Palm Tree” table lamps in enamelled earthenware accented with green, in the manner of Tommaso Barbi, 1970s.

• Impeccable condition, as new. The switches are identical and original. The lamps have very probably never been used.
• Shades are not included; they are illustrated as examples. Two Gold LED E27 bulbs supplied
• H 54 cm (to the socket without bulb) × Diameter 17 cm
• H to the top leaf: 44 cm
• Sold as an inseparable pair, price for the pair.

This pair of palm tree–shaped table lamps, identical in format, belongs to the Italian taste of the 1970s for lighting inspired by the plant world. Executed in white enamelled ceramic, they are delicately accented with green on the contours of the fronds, the articulations of the trunk, and the base, while the brass mounting elements bring a gilded touch to the ensemble.

The design is particularly successful: the long ringed shaft evokes both a palm tree trunk and faux bamboo, before opening into two crowns of broad curved leaves. The glossy ceramic and the fineness of the green lines visually lighten these otherwise very present silhouettes. Together, the two lamps form a true decorative pair, perfectly symmetrical.

Palm tree and faux bamboo, an entire decorative repertoire

The success of the palm tree in lighting of the 1960s and 70s belongs to a broader decorative movement in which nature progressively left simple ornamental register to become the very structure of the object. Fronds, bamboo, wheat sheaves, flowers, and foliage were enlarged, stylized, and transformed into furniture or lighting with strong visual presence.

This taste had already found a particularly refined expression with Coco Chanel. After her meeting with the goldsmith Robert Goossens in 1953, he created for her jewellery, objects, and furniture in gilded metal inspired by the natural world. Their celebrated wheat-sheaf table, an example of which still stands in Chanel’s apartment on rue Cambon, has become one of the most recognizable images of this repertoire. Wheat, a motif dear to Chanel, literally becomes the architecture of the piece. Maison Goossens perpetuates this motif to this day in its collection devoted to wheat.

Detail of the wheat-sheaf base with a beautiful gilded patina, evoking Robert Goossens’ creations for Coco Chanel.

A few years later, this manner of transforming the vegetal into spectacular object flourished fully in the aesthetic now associated with Hollywood Regency. Maison Jansen contributed greatly to popularizing in French interiors palm tree–shaped lighting and other vegetal décors in solid brass.

Solid brass Palm Tree Lamps, Maison Jansen and the Ateliers Christian Techoueyres.

In Germany, Hans Kögl developed in parallel a very similar repertoire: large palm trees, branches, foliage, and flowers in gilded metal became wall sconces, lamps, and floor lamps. His creations of the 1970s particularly well illustrate this fascination for theatrical and precious vegetation.

Floor lamp in stamped and gilded metal, design Hans Kögl.

These white and green ceramic palm tree lamps clearly belong to this universe, but in a lighter Italian interpretation. The long ringed shaft also evokes faux bamboo, while the two crowns of fronds give the lamps their tropical silhouette. Their treatment refers notably to the work of Tommaso Barbi, who also explored during the 1970s vegetal forms and stylized bamboo in his lighting.

Two enamelled ceramic palm tree lamps, identical models of which are attributed to Tommaso Barbi.

In the absence of a visible signature, these lamps are presented as attributed to Tommaso Barbi. The underside of each still retains its original vintage felt, in perfect condition.