An Obscure Industrial Design Classic: Angelo Lelii's Polifemo Floor Lamp

Midcentury Italian lighting designer Angelo Lelii created this Polifemo lamp in 1956. The unusual design features a stem interrupted by a sort of brass eyeball with a plastic diffuser. The eyeball illuminates and can be pivoted. The design is inspired by, and named for Polyphemus, the cyclops from Homer's Odyssey. (The shape of the top of the lamp is meant to reference a wine goblet; in the story, Ulysses got Polyphemus smashed on wine in order to escape from his...