Brutalist Plasma Torch Cut Brass and Copper Chandelier

The light that emanates from Feldman Lighting Company’s decorative chandeliers, pendants and sconces — encased in sculpted bronze and copper and frequently featuring motifs drawn from the natural world — embodies the brutalist movement of the mid-20th century.

The Los Angeles firm’s best known fixtures were produced in various styles from the late 1940s until the 1980s, and its most notable designer, Tom Greene was a graduate of UCLA’s dental school and originally worked as a dental prosthetist.

Beginning in the 1950s, when he wasn't at work in his dental lab, Greene would craft small jewelry pieces utilizing techniques that were typically reserved for making dental crowns and other prosthetics. Unsatisfied with jewelry as a medium, Greene stepped it up and began crafting free-form sculptures from brass and bronze, using an oxyacetylene torch to cut and heat the metal, and hammering it into shape with artisan tools (a torch-cut lamp of Greene’s appeared on Star Trek during the 1960s). He also worked with the ancient technique of lost-wax casting, which sees metal objects and furnishings cast from wax models.

Greene began producing fixtures for Lightolier and Feldman Lighting in the 1970s after seeing much success selling his pieces through Los Angeles furniture retailer and manufacturer Monteverdi-Young. Greene made numerous custom pieces for Feldman to adorn the Hollywood Regency-themed interiors of its Beverly Hills clientele.

The Feldman Lighting company folded by the mid-1980s and its vintage fixtures are highly valued by interior designers and collectors today.

On 1stDibs, find Feldman Lighting Company lighting and decorative objects.