Gilbert Rohde and Mutual-Sunset Lamp Manufacturing Co.
Desk Lamp
1927-1937
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Physical Qualities
Chrome, steel, brass, 7 x 14 x 2 3/4 in. (17.8 x 35.6 x 7 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Michael and Anis Merson, Baltimore
Object Number
2001.414
BEDROOM OR OFFICE
At the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, Gilbert Rohde displayed this chrome-plated desk lamp model in a full-scale display home decorated with mass-produced objects for middle-class consumers. Called Design for Living, the house showed how Depression-era designers incorporated the latest technology—like alarm clocks and night lights—into simple designs produced in cost-effective materials. The family grandfather clock or candle of 50 years before was now a stylish electric accessory, only an arm’s reach away on a personal desk or bedside table.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2001; Michael and Anis Merson, Baltimore, MD by 2001
Ross, Phyllis, Gilbert Rohde: Modern Design for Modern Living, Yale University Press, 2009, Fig. 58.
Inscribed: Unmarked
Manufacturer
Mutual-Sunset Lamp Manufacturing Co.
1909–1992
American, active 1910 - 1993
Meet Mutual-Sunset Lamp Manufacturing Co.
On View at the BMA
