Alabaster table lamp, Brutalist style, France circa 1950

French table lamps from the 1950s. In the brutalist style, this lamp is made from alabaster using several overlapping cylinders worked in relief, providing a soft and warm illumination through this versatile marble. The cylindrical alabaster shade, with a wide textured central band, rests on an alabaster disc attached to a thin, solid cylindrical stem, all resting on a circular base with a textured edge. The translucent properties of alabaster made it a favored material for many 20th century lighting designers such as pierre chareau, edgar brandt, abert chereut, emile jacques ruhlmann and jean-michel frank. The shade can be rotated to reveal more pronounced veining.