This Soholm table lamp base, model 1072, was designed by Einar Johansen in the 1960s and made at the Danish pottery in Ronne on the island of Bornholm. The same tapering form was produced in several glaze colours; this example carries a saturated orange-red glaze set against dark, matte stoneware.
A tall cone rises from a wide, bowl-shaped foot. The cone is left unglazed and shows faint horizontal throwing lines from the wheel, while the shallow dish around its base is filled with red glaze. The colour deepens where the glaze gathers against the stem, a fine crackle spreads outward from there, and small radial ripples run towards the pale edge of the glaze. A plain white porcelain socket sits on top.
Soholm has worked on Bornholm since 1835, and its hand-thrown stoneware lamp bases from the 1960s are sought after by collectors of Danish ceramics. The underside is unglazed: a pale ring on the foot surrounds a dark stoneware centre, and the cord leaves through a small notch in the rim of the foot.
The glaze was applied by hand, so the exact red and the pattern of the crackle are particular to this lamp. It works as a sculptural object on a shelf or sideboard, or with a shade on a desk or bedside table.
01 / 06
