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Rejuvenation is proud to be partnering with Blenko to bring its mid-century lamps and decanters back to the market – and to a new generation of modern design enthusiasts – more than 50 years after their initial introduction.
Blenko glass table lamps: Flare, Wave, and Cylinder bases
The Men Behind the Glass
Though perhaps best known as mid-century icons, Blenko has a history as richly hued as its glass. British-born William John Blenko began his career in glass at an early age, apprenticing in a London bottle factory in 1864 when he was only 10. He went into business on his own in the 1880s, using his free time to experiment with making superior colored glass – particularly an elusive ruby red that wouldn’t change color when heated.
William J. Blenko
Drawn by the dream of a prosperous America, Blenko resolved to become the first manufacturer of antique-style stained glass in the U.S. He came to Kokomo, Indiana, in 1893, and launched the first of a string of unsuccessful glass ventures.
After many false starts and cross-Atlantic voyages, Blenko finally found success in 1921, in Milton, West Virginia, making glass for prestigious church restoration projects.
By 1929, William Blenko’s son, Bill, had become instrumental in running the family business. He saw that the company needed to branch out to stay viable, and decided to enter the tableware market. The younger Blenko called upon two local Swedish glass craftsmen, who trained the Blenko glassmakers in the art of blowing three-dimensional forms that still captured all the beauty of an ancient cathedral window.
Blenko supplied cathedral glass for windows like these from a c. 1923 catalog.
By 1946, Bill Blenko made the significant decision to hire a Design Director. He found Winslow Anderson, a 30-year-old war veteran just graduating from Alfred University.
Anderson’s boldly sensuous and lushly colored work for Blenko – more than 170 designs in all – put him in the vanguard of the evolving field of American glass craft. In the process, he reshaped Blenko’s product line and its future.
Wayne Husted, another Alfred University graduate, joined Blenko in 1953, at the age of 23. Husted’s dramatic sculptural forms and large “architectural scale” works became hallmarks of mid-century glass. In his 10-year stint with Blenko, Husted produced more than 500 designs.
Blenko Design Director Wayne Husted
The Mid-Century Homeowner
Following the difficult war years of the 1940s, a generation of young homeowners, filled with new ideas and attitudes, changed the American residential landscape with their embrace of open-plan ranch houses and fresh takes on casual living and décor. Life was meant to be lived glamorously, and homes were meant to be as fun as they were functional.
Better Homes and Gardens mid-century ranch home c.1960
Glassware accents in a mid-century home
Colorful glass decanters, a ubiquitous design element in the 1950s home, seemed to perfectly capture the decade’s earnest enthusiasm. Blenko’s “bright idea” was to turn its popular decanters into lamps, which even today provide a sense of effortless glamour with just a touch of whimsy.
Blenko decanters and vases
Stopper-inspired glass finials
Blenko Carafe Table Lamp – note the decanter-inspired finial
The Lamp-Making Process
Blenko glass is still produced using glassmaking methods that have been around since medieval days. Six-person teams work together to make the magic happen. First, glass batches are handmixed from combinations of sand and other natural materials, then melted in large pots by intense furnaces. The glassblower then uses a pipe to blow the hot glass into a hand-carved mold made from a soft fruitwood like cherry or apple. While iron molds are used for forming precise designs, the organic shapes of these lamps are best produced from wood. The mold gives the glass its basic shape. It’s then removed and carefully worked by hand until it reaches its final form.
A Blenko glassblower at work
With hundreds of glass formulas developed over more than a century of trial and error, Blenko’s color range surely meets the initial hopes of its founder, who wanted to create hues of unsurpassed richness. In its Milton factory, Blenko keeps glass samples organized in immense antique hanging wood racks that slide back and forth in front of a large window, so the countless subtle color and texture differences can be seen and selected. From this range of proprietary color formulas, Rejuvenation chose a total of eight colors that we then used for our lamps, decanters, and vases.
Blenko glass colors c.1956 (image courtesy of American Museum of Glass)
To create our authentic reissues, Blenko’s glassmakers blow the lamp vessels in Milton, West Virginia, still using their traditional methods. We transform them into lamps in our Portland factory, where we wire and assemble them, adding the sustainably harvested Eastern Walnut bases, adjustable harps, and American-made shades.
When they were first introduced in the 1950s, Blenko lamps featured fiberglass and linen-like shantung shades. The mid-’50s brought the introduction of burlap, or “Calcutta cloth” as Blenko then referred to it. To maintain the historical accuracy of our lamps, we’ve made our shades in burlap, as well as linen in black or ivory. The edges are handrolled for a smooth, tailored finish.
A burlap shade complements a Blenko Round Table Lamp
Amethyst Carafe Table Lamp at home
Born of 1950s Modernist idealism, Mid-Century Modern was eventually a victim of its own success.
In the early 1960s, as the novelty of the style’s clean, rational lines and space-inspired imagery wore off, manufacturers tried to keep their customers interested – and gain a wider popular market share – by “modifying” the now-familiar fixture forms with new (and more emotional) colors, materials and nostalgic or ersatz themes. This shift begins in the early 1960s and continued through the end of the decade – a late and un-named transitional phase of the MCM trend we will call Mid-Century “Modified”…
In this selection from Progress in 1962 can be seen many of the divergent directions Mid-Century Modern would go in the next years as classics like the three Scandinavian pendants in the center are flanked by Asian porcelain experiments, more decorative glass treatments, funkified variations on old MCM themes, and the new ersatz style in ivory and gold that would soon sweep the market – Florentine. (Rejuvenation archives)
In this Mid-Century Modified post we’ll mostly look at pendants, which is where so much of the action was. In this “Pendant Panorama” from Moe Light in 1963, a happy homemaker dances with joy over another mix of Danish-style MCM classics and newer modifications like crackle and amber-tinted glass, filigree porcelain, plastic Honeycomb overlays, Venetian glass blown into a wire frame, and the nameless pseudo-Old World (or bordello?) style in the upper right that no one expected would become a mainstay of the hipster restaurant decor scene today. (Rejuvenation archives)
By 1967, J.C. Virden had replaced most all of their Swedish glass in favor of deeply colorful exercises in semi-transparent optic effects, which could be hung with their integral swag chains (from the popcorn ceiling) in any part of your tastefully decorated room. The influence of outer space is still present, judging by the alien that seems to have gotten that lower right fixture in its grip… (Rejuvenation archives)
Ahhh… who doesn’t love Stromboli? Italian influences were strong in late-1960s lighting like this spread from Sea Gull in 1967. (Rejuvenation archives)
Alas, poor Louis Comfort Tiffany… lighting manufacturers (like Sea Gull here in 1967) were not kind to him. Much of America’s population is still suffering today from P-PTSD, or Pizza-Parlor Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Rejuvenation archives)
This 1967 catalog of Emerson Imperialites offers a typical range of “evolved” modern Asian and Scandinavian pendants that captures the flavor of the Mid-Century Modified period. Don’t look too closely – the lighting is enhanced by charming lifestyle vignettes that may induce severe flashbacks. (Rejuvenation archives)
Ok, look closely. You know you wanted to. (Rejuvenation archives)
J.C. Virden was getting its groovy on ”for the Exciting TOTAL LOOK” in 1967 with this eye-catching selection of colorful, ahem, models. House & Garden magazine would release an official palette of colors each year that manufacturers would then produce their products in. (Rejuvenation archives)
Just to prove that the Mid-Century Modern style wasn’t entirely forgotten at the end of the decade, these pendants from Progress in 1969 include Scandinavian favorites alongside other classic designs that had received color and optic modifying makeovers. (Rejuvenation archives)
Mediterranean – much like Colonial Revival – is a style that never seems to fall out of favor… it just gets continually updated. By 1971, Moe Light had relegated the timeless Mid-Century Modern mainstay – the white spherical globe – to an almost invisible supporting role above. While Mid-Century was being modified out of existence, the colorful glass here hints at the new trend taking its place – Mod. (Rejuvenation archives)
Explore the Mod story by clicking here.
For the full story of modern 1960s & 1970s lighting, click here.
Just as the nation itself experienced a youth-fueled revolution in the second half of the 1960s, so did the world of lighting.
In both arenas, staid old ideas were re-imagined (or tossed out altogether) in search of fresh, colorful, experimental, and emotional directions that embodied the hope and groovy aspirations of a new generation and style – Mod.
Lightolier – always an industry leader when it came to postwar Modern lighting – was quick to pick up on European and Scandinavian trends and translate them for the American market. These 1966 pages reflect the infusion of fresh color, form and materials that would give Mod its appeal to a younger audience. (courtesy of Hagley Museum & Library)
By 1968, Lightolier had established itself as the mass-market go-to source for the latest in trending colors and materials – like the “smoke-tinted acrylic” and black-and-white or polka-dot printed shades above. Note they still offer Mid-Century Modern mainstays as well. (Rejuvenation archives)
Perhaps no spread captures the happy optimism of the flower-power era like this one – Fun-Lites from Lightcraft of California in 1969. “An explosion of flamboyant colors with refreshing new designs… will reflect a vitality and flair that’s ‘in’ with today’s fun generation!” (Rejuvenation archives)
Lightolier was WITH IT! in 1970 with a “new look inspired by swinging London and modern-made Milan.” Indeed – the La Ronde family was designed by Gaetano Sciolari. Spectacular copy touts the “spatial interplay” and “magnetic mystique” of the new ”Pristine. Peppy. Provocative. Now!” series for the “home of contemporania.” (Rejuvenation archives)
Another great selection of lights from Lightolier in 1970, including the iconic Lytegem, Baton, Lytebeam, Lyric and Interplay portables. (Rejuvenation archives)
On the left, from the 1970 Lightolier well that never runs dry, comes the Satellite series – “Switched on. Tuned in. With it. Suited to the genre of our times.” On the right, Metropolitan Lighting provides the obvious name to the popular fixtures of this type – Molecular. (Rejuvenation archives)
Metropolitan wasn’t only offering chemistry and physics in 1971 – they also covered zoology and haberdashery with the (we assume imported) “Hedgehog” “Fish” and “Bowler”… A Clockwork Orange, anyone? (Rejuvenation archives)
The Nebula family from Lightcraft of California in 1971. “A stunning innovation in chrome and black, catalysts for low-key or bright colors in contemporary or transitional decors. Dare to be bold…yet subtle…with this imaginative contribution to generous illumination!” (Rejuvenation archives)
Not to be outdone by Lightcraft, Moe Light offered the Mod series on the left – with its “Bauhaus styling” – in Canary Yellow, Burnt Orange and Moss Green. The smoked acrylic and fiber optic fantasia on the right may have launched Spencer’s Gifts. (Rejuvenation archives)
Mod wasn’t just for walls and ceilings. Some of its most fun designs were in the world of floor and table lamps, like these examples from Mutual-Sunset in 1973. (Rejuvenation archives)
While this spread from Thomas Lighting in 1974 does not shed a lot of new light on Mod lighting, we include it for the simple reason that we love Modern Sideburns Man and His Kid on the lower left. And the hovering red balloon evokes images of Rover chasing Patrick McGoohan in our favorite Mod TV series, The Prisoner. (Rejuvenation archives)
We end our brief survey of Mod lighting in 1976, right where we started – with pendants from Lightolier. These highly sought suspensions from our Bicentennial year include the Caprice, the Editor’s Light, the Vanguard, and on the right – “Polished Chrome. A ball, that’s all.” Mod poetry. (Rejuvenation archives)
Mod would evolve (or devolve, depending on your point of view) through the 1970s, until the advent of Postmodernism. Meanwhile, a parallel style was growing – Contemporary.
Explore the related Contemporary story by clicking here.
For the full story of modern 1960s & 1970s lighting, click here.
At the same time Mid-Century Modern was being infused with new emotion and color through Mod, another trend was also taking shape – Contemporary.
Popular fads and youthful experimentation weren’t for everyone, and Modern lighting designers – aware that not all customers wanted to leave traditional elegance and beauty behind – carried their rational ideals forward into a new style that was clean, cutting edge, sophisticated, sculptural and sparkling.
“Contemporary” simply means “of the current time” – but as a style, Contemporary embodied now-ness in a more fresh and expressive Modern spirit.
Lightolier – the industry leader in postwar Modern lighting – was quick to pick up on European and Scandinavian trends, importing or adapting them for the American market. This 1966 spread features a new Gaetano Sciolari series that exemplifies the cool, sophisticated, sparkling and sculptural look that was blossoming into Contemporary. (courtesy of Hagley Museum & Library)
Not content to simply import new ideas, Lightolier also applied the latest trends to conventional forms, as here in 1968 with the Spiral Light and other designs infused with an Early American flavor. The past could be Contemporary, too. (Rejuvenation archives)
On the left, Lightolier innovates in 1970 with “Lighting that will turn your guests on.” On the right, Metropolitan Lighting offers stunning imported examples of Contemporary lighting that sparkle with the trending look of crystal and ice. (Rejuvenation archives)
Alright, let’s just get this over with – Brutalism. There, we’ve said it… A controversial and much debated sub-trend of the Contemporary style (Moe described these lights in 1971 as “contemporary eclectic”), Brutalism embraced rugged, rough-edged, hand-formed sculptural effects that boldly expressed the materials being used. (Rejuvenation archives)
Progress was also cozy with Sciolari of Rome, importing the refined collection above in 1972. These fixtures perfectly illustrate the most popular features of Contemporary style – clean lines, artistic sensibilities, smoky glass, and sparkling chrome or polished brass paired with black. (Rejuvenation archives)
More Gaetano Sciolari from the 1972 Progress catalog with this stunning array of Contemporary Crystal. Delicate and forward looking without any reference to the dripping opulence of Versailles, these designs manage to communicate effortless style and timeless sophistication. (Rejuvenation archives)
The design influences in this spread from Thomas in 1974 range widely from Brutalist to Colonial Revival – yet every piece conveys the cool, smoky ambiance of Contemporary style. (Rejuvenation archives)
Lightolier invested deeply in Sciolari designs in the 1970s. Their astounding 1976 line-up is chock-a-block with fixture families that have become darlings of the high-end dealers set today, including Cubic I and Interplay One above. (Rejuvenation archives)
Have we mentioned our love affair with Lightolier and Sciolari? (we know – we said we weren’t going be snobby name droppers…) Here are the 1976 Geometric and Habitat series, and perhaps Sciolari’s pièce de résistance - Sculptura. (Rejuvenation archives)
Have we mentioned… oh, right. Sculptura in greater glory, along with Image, MSS (Modular Sphere System) and MLS (Modular Lighting System). It would be hard to overstate the importance of clear, round bulbs in Contemporary lighting. (courtesy of Hagley Museum & Library)
Progress offered these iconic imports from Gaetano Sciolari in 1976 (they were apparently perfect for women who wanted to relax). The mind-boggling TC 4506 at upper left is a “sculpture” of brass, stainless steel and Lucite called Futura. (Rejuvenation archives)
We’ll wrap up our brief Contemporary survey with this 1976 Progress spread (more Sciolari of Rome), which not only broadcasts its Contemporary bona fides in large blue letters, but also offers this summary of the style: “You will see the influence of Mondrian, Breuer, van der Rohe and the other giants of the Bauhaus in elemental lines and shapes which create interesting perspectives from every angle.” Even an angle that is almost 40 years in the future.
Unlike Mod, by holding onto the spirit of Modernism while also embracing popular desires for accessible beauty and decorative effects, Contemporary is a style that has stood the test of time - for all intents and purposes, it still exists in new lighting today (though the polyester and heavy eye shadow have mostly disappeared).
Explore the related Mod story by clicking here.
For the full story of modern 1960s & 1970s lighting, click here.
This year, we’re spreading the holiday glow with an Artisan Fair in each of our stores. It’s an opportunity to celebrate American handcraft, and the local artists who bring beauty and great design into our everyday lives.
At our Seattle store, the Artisan Fair takes place Saturday, November 10th, from 10AM to 5PM. We’ll have a diverse group of local artists on-hand, all with their own personal take on familiar and enduring crafts, including limited-run, hand-illustrated prints, Northwest-inspired blown glass, photography, ceramics, handcrafted stationery, and artisan caramels. Meet these creative folks and find that truly original, one-of-a kind gift for everybody on your list.
You can also enter to win one our new, iconic Mid-Century Modern Blenko table lamps, and take an up-close look at our authentic reissues of legendary O.C. White Industrial lamps.
It’s sure to be a fun and festive event, so we hope to see you on the 1oth!
Artisans:
Jennifer Ament, printmaking
Justin Bagley and Brooke Freed, bluejays & bumblebees
John and Shannon Felix, Avalon Glass Works
Heather Locke, Maida Vale
Sarah Woodson, Downing Pottery
Hedy Anderson, King Caramel
