Pair of lamps from Murano island in Venice, Italy. The lamps feature an array of colorful geometric Murano glass components sitting on a square black metal base. They have been newly wired to fit US standards and feature custom shades. They are in the Memphis style. 

Memphis was born on the evening of December 11, 1980, when Ettore Sottsass invited a group of young designers and architects to discuss the future of design. Together, they wanted to change the concept of what design had been focused on, which had been Modernism and aimed to do so by creating and forming a new design collective. After their initial meeting, the group went away to brainstorm different ideas and concepts, and three months later came back together ready to share over a hundred drawings they had produced during that time.

The inspiration behind naming themselves "Memphis" came about during their first meeting when Bob Dylan's record "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again" had been playing repeatedly in the background. "Memphis" is the name of a city in Tennessee, which was named after a capital city of ancient Egypt. The group of designers used the ambiguity behind the name to represent and symbolize their ambiguous design philosophies of furniture, objects and textiles. Sottsass showed great interest in the middle-class taste, the traditions of the Third World and the East, and unspoiled nature.