Taccia Lamp

Taccia lamp is one of the most remark­able table lamps created in the 20th century. In a 1970 inter­view, Achille Castiglioni refer­ring to Taccia stating that ​“we regard it as the Mercedes of the lamps, a symbol of success: maybe because it looks like a classic column. Of course we weren’t concerned about pres­tige when we designed it. We intended to obtain a surface which would remain chilly.”

The substan­tial fluted colum­nar base in nickel-plated, zapon-varnished polished steel with fluted base element in extruded aluminum avail­able in matte black or anodized silver finish – the base houses the trans­former and socket for the bulb. Atop the base is a hand-blown parab­o­loid blown glass diffuser form over which a white painted concave aluminum disc fits. Light is reflected off of the white disc and is diffused through the bulbous glass form. The large cavity within the glass diffuser, along with the open­ings above and below the fluted exte­rior of the base, also helps disperse the heat gener­ated by the bulb. The unique shape of the glass diffuser resting within the cylin­dri­cal colum­nar base allows the user to easily shift the diffuser to create new overall aesthet­ics for the lamp without having to touch the base.

Taccia lamp was first presented by the Castiglioni Broth­ers in March 1959 at the Illi­nois Insti­tute of Design and the Chicago Insti­tute of Tech­nol­ogy. After Flos was formed in 1962, Taccia lamp was one of the lamps presented in its initial collec­tion and has remained in contin­u­ous produc­tion for 50 years.