Love for televison lamps is a generational thing. Each generation has common memories that highlight the times of their lives. For the Baby Boomer generation, one of those common memories is TV lamps.

The uniquely designed and decorative TV lamps served two useful purpose — to preserve eyesight and to decorate and enhance the beauty of the new line of television sets being manufactured by companies such as Motorola and Zenith. A mother’s fear was that the small screens and unclear pictures on early televisions would cause children to go blind unless they used “back-light.” Due to extremely poor screen quality, direct or overhead lighting washed out the screen, so back lighting was preferred

The American Pottery industry offered mothers a solution to the television viewing problem. In the 1950s advertisements encouraged parents to buy a ceramic lamp, which when perched on top of the television set, produced indirect lighting by bouncing the light off the wall behind the set.

Ceramic TV lamps were produced in a wide variety of styles and colors. These were glazed and painted in popular 1950s colors like green, maroon, white, orange, yellow, black, and pink. The illumination in most of the lamps came from a single bulb in the back of the figure, however some lamps had a bulb inside. The lamps featured decorative forms of animals or other familiar objects. The figures most often represented in TV lamps were Siamese cats, panthers, dogs, mallards, ducks, swans, and ships. Some TV lamps also served other functions, doubling as planters, candy dishes, or clocks.

An Asian influence is found on many of the lamps, including similar themes by different companies. Most of the Asian motif lamps sell in the range of $45-$85. Walco TV Lamp Co. manufactured TV lamps that doubled as vases and had dragons embossed on them. These lamps are about 10 inches tall and sell for around $60. One interesting lamp shows a woman with her arms around a panther. This ceramic lamp is painted green and metallic gold and sells for about $85.

Ship lamps also dominated TV lamp forms. Sailboat lamp colors include dark green and gold, black and gold, and white and gold. The gold in each of these color schemes was in the form of gilt decoration. Sailboat lamps average about $40 in stores today.

While many companies manufactured TV lamps, a few of the larger companies include Land and Co. of Van Nuys, California; Kron of Bangs, Texas; Haeger Potteries of Dundee, Illinois; Maddux of Los Angeles, California; and McCoy Pottery of Zanesville, Ohio. A few companies also produced TV lamps as promotional items. These lamps were given to customers who purchased television sets.

While the TV lamp was very popular in the ’50s because of its beauty and usefulness, when television-viewing quality improved, along with changes in cabinet design the TV lamp lost its place in the American home. Popular for less than 10 years, TV lamps were packed away and forgotten. Many, sadly, were simply thrown in the trash.

TV lamps from the 1950s are now reemerging from storage and finding their way to garage sales, flea markets, antique shops, and other secondary markets. When purchasing TV lamps, especially for investment, make certain that they are in excellent condition, with no chips or cracks. It is okay if the wiring has been replaced for safety purposes since new wiring does not affect value.