William Manker studio pottery lamp, with its original woven shade. From the archive.
The glaze, the wood and the shade.
The pottery is a soft blue, glazed over with pink and white in a fine stipple, so the color changes as you walk around the lamp. Turned wood caps the pottery at the top and base, and the woven shade adds a second texture above it.
William Manker made this lamp at his studio in Padua Hills, California, in the late 1940s or 1950s. The body is slip-cast and glazed in several layers, which is why the color looks deep rather than painted on.
The layered glaze, where blue gives way to pink and white.
The hidden studio mark.
When we took the lamp apart to clean it, we found the studio mark on the underside of the pottery. When the lamp is assembled, the wood base covers it completely, so an owner could have the lamp for years without knowing it was there.
Photographs show the shape and the glaze, but only taking the lamp apart turned up the mark. That’s why we take lamps apart before we list them.
Dimensions and what’s included. 23in high with the shade; the shade is 11¼in wide. Sold with its original shade; bulb not included.
What’s original, and what we did.
The drum shade, brass fittings, wiring and two-prong plug are all original to the lamp. The shade is woven in white and tan bouclé with threads of gold, and it is as much a part of the design as the glaze.
We cleaned the lamp and checked that it worked. We did not rewire it, and the listing said so, so the buyer knew exactly what had been done.
The piece behind this article
Drawn from our own research into the piece.
- William Manker studio pottery lamp — Sold · Archive