This opal glass pendant lamp from the 1930s–1940s was made for a child's room. Its cream-yellow shade is printed with bears at play: a pair walking side by side, and another kicking a red-and-orange ball across a strip of green grass. The maker has not been identified, so the lamp is best described by its form and decoration, which belong to the Art Deco and early Functionalist lighting of the period.
The shade is moulded in six rounded panels that swell towards the middle and end in groups of fine vertical ribs beneath the body. The ribs carry a warm amber tint that stands out against the pale glass, and the surface has a smooth, glossy finish. Lit from within, the opal glass gives off a soft, even yellow glow and brings out the stencil-like texture of the printed bears in amber and brown.
The fittings are brass: a domed ceiling canopy, a flat cap on the shoulder of the shade, and a slim rod wrapped in textile thread, with a small knotted cover where it meets the canopy. The straight rod holds the shade at a fixed, low height rather than on a long cord.
Decorated opal glass lamps for children's rooms were made in several European countries in these decades. This one, with its bears, panelled shade and brass rod suspension, is a single, one-of-a-kind piece for collectors of vintage nursery lighting.
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