Milan, Italy

 “I designed the Tolomeo in 1986. Perhaps I ought to say that I invented it, as in point of fact the idea for a new mechanism came before the lamp was created,” states Michele De Lucchi.

Artemide has just released a new version of the classic Tolomeo lamp originally designed in 1986 by Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina. 

The iconic Tolomeo Micro Bicolor Table Lamp is now available in vibrant pops of color: shades of blue, yellow, coral, and white add a bright accent to the black base. 

The lamp features the same flexible arm and diffuser as the iconic original, working perfectly as both a functional task lamp and design object. 

Brought out in 1987 and designed for Artemide by Michele De Lucchi with Giancarlo Fassina, the Tolomeo was an immediate bestseller, consolidating a working relationship that continues to this day. 

Inspired by traditional balanced arm lamps like the famous Naska Loris, his challenge was to combine an iconic and “domestic” form with innovative technologies and materials, adapting it to a wide variety of uses and settings.

Today it is a well-known symbol of the modern object, commonly seen in houses, offices, and hotels, on the desks of architects, and on photographic and even film sets.

In the late 1980s, together with master glassblower Petr Novotný (b. 1947), he also cofounded the Ajeto glass factory in the Czech Republic to keep alive the traditions of Bohemian glassblowing.

“For me he is not only an important person in Czech design, but a global postmodern star who brought, along with Philippe Starck, another type of personal approach with a very special accent on craft and story,” states Narkiewicz-Laine.

“He is a symbol of creativity where the best craftsmen would create the most complicated and challenging pieces of the time.”

Project: Tolomeo Micro Bicolor Table Lamp
Architects: Michele De Lucchi and Giancarlo Fassina
Manufacturer: Artemide Italia srl.