Wow, I thought as I saw the two shelves of rather unusual but lovely lamps at the auction house. There were almost a dozen of them – all made of glazed ceramic in the colors of green, brown, soft gray and black.
I instantly recognized some of them as TV lamps in the form of animal figures in sleek and graceful movement, and others as table lamps in the same style. TV lamps were prevalent during the 1950s when big console TVs were becoming the main source of entertainment in homes that could afford them. The TVs were as much a part of the living room dress-up as the sofa, coffee table and end tables.
However, television sets came with a small issue: They emitted limited light for viewing. Although TVs were best watched in the dark, some folks worried that the low light would hurt people’s eyesight. So manufacturers came up with TV lamps as a solution. Over the next 10 years, they became a common decorative item that was also functional.
These mid-century lamps had no shades. Their small bulbs were hidden in a compartment in the back of the lamp to keep the light from being too bright. Thousands of them were made in all kinds of shapes and colors by more than 100 manufacturers. Once lit, the lamps cast a shadow of the figure on the wall behind the TV.
The TV lamps at auction ranged from deer to a gazelle to stallions to an oversized leaf to a stalking panther, which was the most popular of the lamp figures. Turning each of them over, I could not find any makers’ names. I learned that some were made by Phil-Mar and Luminart. At another auction a few weeks earlier, I had encountered a beautiful lamp with a black panther on a lime-green vase made by Haeger.
I can only assume that the grouping of TV lamps belonged to a collector. Here are the lamps from both auctions.
