1960s Table Lamps

Final Frontier

• The 1960s are most notably remembered for the "Race to Space" between the U.S. and Russia. Design during this era reflected the quest for space exploration. Designers created everything from clothes to cars with an eye to the future and space. Lighting fixtures of the '60s, therefore, mirrored the sleek designs of rockets, space ships, planets and stars. The most memorable lamp of the 1960s soon appeared on the market. The astro lamp, created in 1963, appeared in stores in the U.S. after 1966.

Lava Lamps

• The astro lamp, or lava lamp, is an icon of the 1960s. Space age and mysterious, the lava lamp caught the imaginations of a generation, especially those within the counterculture movement looking for ways to escape. The first lava lamps had gold bases with yellow or blue liquid (water) and red or white lava (wax). The maker of lava lamps, Edward Walker, believed his creation would end the growing drug scene.

Materials of Modern Design

• With the advances in technology creating new materials for space travel, designers soon had a new palette of substances from which to create furnishings for the home. Lighting fixtures, including table lamps, leaped into the future on globes of Plexiglas, or Lucite with bases of brass, or chrome. The ability to mass produce components for lamps allowed manufacturers to supply consumers with the latest designs and soon appeared in designer shops.

Mod and Groovy

• Toward the end of the 1960s, the British Invasion influenced design, adding another twist to the modern viewpoint, quickly followed by the psychedelic era. Designs, continuing to utilize geometric configurations, added wild, vibrant colors to the classic black and white, glass and steel fabrications from earlier in the decade. The vibrant colors of the psychedelic movement coupled with modern simplicity gave lamps a bold new look that remains attractive today.