My other lamp score this weekend is a lucite floor lamp attributed to designer Dorothy Thorpe. For those of you not familiar with this mid-century designer, I've supplied a little history below.
"Until the advent of the Mad Men television series, Dorothy Thorpe’s designs languished in relative obscurity, but once Don Draper began drinking out of her now famous roly poly glasses with the silver band rim, her mid-century creations skyrocketed to fame once again.
Dorothy Thorpe of Glendale, California was a world-renowned artist and designer who worked in many media, including glassware. Her career started during the depression days when she decided to make a tumbler from a beer bottle. She saw the sun shining through a beer bottle which had been placed on the window sill and decided to cut the neck off and decorate it with raffia. She gave one of her first creations to her brother who took it to MGM Studios where he worked. Clark Gable saw the glass and liked it so much that he ordered six dozen thereby launching Thorpe’s career.
In a few short years, Dorothy C. Thorpe became famous for her original creations in crystal ware. She had no formal design training, yet she did all her own sketches and drawings. She marketed her first pieces through a small Hollywood gift shop. Soon, buyers from the largest and best known shops saw her work and placed orders. Her list of customers included many of the Hollywood Studios and stars as well as wealthy and famous people, including Princess Grace of Monaco and the Shah of Iran. Besides tableware, Dorothy Thorpe created glass decorations and lamps for the Mormon Temple at Idaho Falls, windows for St. John’s Academy at Camarillo and pieces for several museums. She won many awards and was listed in Who’s Who in American Art. Dorothy Thorpe also created china, silver and linens and worked with plastics and resins.
In the middle of the 20th Century, Dorothy Thorpe began to experiment with lucite and began to add it to some of her regular pieces as well as creating new pieces. Among the most common are the “pretzel” silver band candle holders."
Here are some other examples of Dorothy Thorpe lucite greatness that I hope I can add to my collection some day:
