‎

REQUEST PRICE HERE

Price category: 2,500 - 5,000 usd / eur

Finnish mid-century lighting design is world-famous for numerous reasons. The country’s designers managed to make strictly functional design look beautiful in addition to practicality and high-quality. This Valinte Oy desk lamp perfectly illustrates this.

As seemingly with most things in Finland, this desk lamp’s design is delivered with sincerity, craftsmanship and a touch of eccentricity that shows the Fins take things simultaneously very seriously indeed, but always with a certain playfulness. This lamp’s design is simple, yet it radiates quality and style. The fully brass body has wonderful curves, especially the neck connecting the base and the shade. When the light is on, the brass base is also lit thanks to the shade’s angle, an effect that makes the lamp stand out even more. The smooth brass surface is only broken by the white switch, which is right in the middle, and has a peculiar shape that is in accordance with the restrained playfulness of Finnish designers. This model is an early 1950s design as it was already featured in Valinte Oy’s 1954 lighting catalogue.

There is much information about larger companies such as Orno, Idman and Taito, and it is fairly easy to identify lamps and light fixtures by them but when it comes to the smaller companies it gets complicated, but also more exciting. Valinte Oy was founded in 1942 by Into Lintero, a Finnish entrepreneur. The name ‘Valinte’ is derived from valaisin (Finnish for lamp) and the surname of the founder, Lintero. Valinte Oy produced high-quality lighting, mostly out of metal, often combined with acrylic or opaque glass. Valinte lamps are sometimes marked V-e as in Valinte, and sometimes the name is accompanied by a serial number. This desk lamp has the manufacturer's mark on its base.

Condition:

In good vintage condition. Wear consistent with age and use. Some scratches and marks on the body. The white paint inside the shade has partially come off.

Dimensions:

10.23 in W x 7.08 in D x 14.96 in H

26 cm W x 18 cm D x 38 cm H

About the Designer:

The light fixture manufacturer Valinte Oy was officially founded in 1959 by entrepreneur Into Lintero, but the name Valinte Oy has been around since August 1942 in Helsinki, Malmi. The name Valinte comes from Valaisin (Lamp) and the former part of Lintero. The factory was also built in 1959 (drawn by architect Aulis Salo) and later enlarged in 1964.

The factory had their own seamstresses and made mostly lamps out of metal, sometimes combined with plastic/acrylic or opal glass. The company was renamed Lampukas Oy in the 1970s and was later moved to Saarijärvi where it still functions today. The factory doesn’t however make the kind of designed light fixtures it used to anymore. Its founder, Lintero died in 1996.