Tommaso Cimini for Lumina Vintage Zed Table Lamp, Italy, 1980s

Creator of the now-iconic Daphine table lamp, Milanese lighting designer and entrepreneur Tommaso Cimini worked as a technician at legendary mid-century modern manufacturer Artemide prior to establishing his own firm, Lumina, in 1980. 

Renowned among architects and interior designers for its slender and unassuming table lamps, pendants and floor lamps in brushed nickel and varnish-coated aluminum, Italian lighting company Lumina has been producing lighting solutions for residential and commercial properties all over the globe for several decades. 

Before Lumina took shape, Cimini created a prototype in 1975 of a very minimalist table lamp — it comprised little more than an articulated arm, a modest-sized diffuser and a transformer that, instead of being tucked inside the base, was visible to anyone who stopped by Cimini’s workbench to admire his clever fixture. 

Cimini’s idea — “lots of light, not much lamp” — was the catalyst for the Daphine table lamp, a deceptively simple and elegant design that debuted at the Milan Trade Fair to considerable critical acclaim. This was merely the beginning of Cimini’s career as an independent designer and he’d already created a hit. 

Based on the success of the now-iconic Daphine lamp — which gave way to a wall light, a floor lamp and a ceiling version — Cimini formed Lumina in Sedriano, a town in Milan, in 1980. 

The new decade marked the start of an albeit brief era of postmodern design, which would yield innovative, unconventional furnishings and decorative objects in Cimini’s native Italy from the likes of the Memphis Group and others. Together with several notable figures in the field of lighting design, including Riccardo Blumer, Yaacov Kaufman, Walter Monici and Emanuele Ricci, Cimini’s firm created a range of sculptural fixtures in appealing contemporary styles. 

There were Monici’s Tangram metal and aluminum table lamps, which feature a jointed arm and reflector that rotates 360 degrees. Elsewhere, Kaufman’s Matrix pendant light was made of aluminum and steel with 16 moveable arms fitted with halogen or fluorescent bulbs. In the subsequent years, Lumina opened branches in Switzerland and Germany and collaborated with British architecture and design firm Foster + Partners to create sleek pieces such as the Flo desk lamp, Ilium pendant lamp and EVA glass table lamp.

Cimini died in 1997, leaving Lumina to his son Ettore, who runs the company today. Several Lumina lamps, particularly the Daphine, are held in the collections of museums such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs and more, and the company’s fixtures are sold in more than 100 countries all over the world. 

Find vintage Tommaso Cimini table lamps, floor lamps, wall lights and other lighting on 1stDibs.