Porta Romana Lamps: personalised and original artisanal products
Porta Romana was founded in a small London workshop in 1988. Today the brand exports artisanal lamps all over the world.
The English firm’s style is perpetually evolving, in order to suit both domestic environments and institutional spaces. Today, Porta Romana is a synonym of beautiful design and a certification of high quality.
Ceramics, hand-blown glass, metal and wood are cleverly combined to give the artisanal Porta Romana lamps a unique and lively look. Every new collection, in fact, uses different materials and manufacturing techniques, capable each time of reviving the look of an already rich and colourful catalogue.
An example of this can be seen in the Porta Romana Elemental series, a tribute to nature’s shapes, colours, geometry and simplicity.
Inspired by the meeting of earth and fire, the clean design of the Phoenix ceiling lamp is made by overlapping steel and polished-copper hexagonal plates. The majestic five-stem variant of this lamp merges clay tones with shiny nickel, creating impressive lighting effects.
Amid the artisanal table lamps of the Porta Romana Elemental collection, the Aladdin-inspired Shisha Lamp stands out.
The body of the Shisha lamp - available in the Hazelnut, Butternut and Kingfisher colour variations - is embellished with a vortex-shaped segment of aged brass positioned on the top part of the lamp’s neck. An exotic Vintage Fez lampshade is placed above the brass.
The blue velvet stitching of the Vintage Fez lampshade are handmade and a real trademark of Porta Romana lamps.
The lamp’s harps and internal wiring ensure the product’s longevity and help give rigidity to the fabric, creating a beautiful interplay of shadows. The Porta Romana Lamps are also available in silk and satin and, thus, are completely personalisable.
Porta Romana Artisanal Mirrors: handmade accessories
The Porta Romana Furniture collection also includes artisanal accessories and mirrors. The brand combines metal with hand-varnished wood to renovate the look of a space.
The Megalith console, perfect example of Porta Romana’s unique use of wood, could be the perfect central feature of your home or office.
The majestic and finely-carved console is directly inspired by brutalist architecture. It references the features of the Unité d’Habitation designed by Le Corbusier in Marseille and those of the Torre Velasca in Milan.
The artisanal skill and detail precision presented by this product stand out as much as the exceptional artistry of the Porta Romana mirrors, whose manufacturing can take numerous days.
For instance, it takes 72 hours to create the Mushroom mirror, which requires over 16 different types of paintbrushes for its finishing touches.
Mushroom is part of the Enchanted Forest collection of artisanal mirrors, a series inspired by the plants, mushrooms and waterways of the undergrowth. The mirror evokes the shapes of woodland streams and by reproducing them is able to fuse aesthetic enchantment with functionality.
Porta Romana Made in Britain: the excellence of British Design
Porta Romana’s artisanal accessories, lamps, and mirrors are all rigorously Made in Britain and the team of designers employed by the creative director Shazeen Emambux works closely both with the local manufacturers and with the employees of the British firm’s workshop.
The technicians only use paint brushes to paint the mirrors and give each product multiple coats of paint. This gives a uniform finish to the varnished surfaces of Porta Romana’s designs.
The long manufacturing process of Porta Romana’s artisanal lamps also involves high-skilled sculptors and ceramic artists, who strive to create unique products.
The use of hand-blown glass and handmade metal elements hugely elevate the quality of Porta Romana’s artisanal lamps, accessories and mirrors.
The acclaimed company’s logo was redesigned in 2018 by the renowned artist Chris Gilvan-Cartwright, also known as The Baron Gilvan. Today, the company’s designs can be spotted in London’s Royal Academy of Arts and in the Grange Park Opera auditorium, in the grounds of West Horsley Place, Surrey.