Accordeón, Tulip, Lafleur or Clizia: Slamp Battery Lamps Compared

Slamp makes four cordless table lamps that end up on dining tables more than anywhere else: Accordeón, Tulip, Lafleur and Clizia. They share a material family and a rechargeable format, but their heights, bases and silhouettes differ enough to change how a dinner feels. This comparison sets out the measurements and explains which shape suits which table.

Four lamps from one Roman workshop

Slamp was founded in Rome in 1994 by Roberto Ziliani, and it built its name on technopolymers rather than glass. Its Lentiflex® sheet can be cut, pleated, curled and moulded by hand into forms that would be fragile or impossible in blown glass, and it stays light and resilient enough to be picked up and carried to the table every evening. All four lamps here use Lentiflex® for the shade; Clizia adds Cristalflex®.

Three designers are involved. Marc Sadler, the Austrian-born, Milan-based industrial designer with several Compasso d'Oro awards to his name, drew both Accordeón and Tulip. His career has been built on plastics and composite materials, which makes him a natural partner for a company that works almost entirely in polymer. Lafleur is credited to Marcantonio, and Clizia to Adriano Rachele. The result is a small family with a clear common language: hand-worked translucent shades on compact bases, with no cable to plan around.

The measurements side by side

For a dinner table, three numbers matter most: overall height, which decides whether the light sits below or at eye level; the footprint, which decides how much space it takes from plates and glasses; and the width of the shade, which decides how much of the table it visually occupies.

The table shows a clear split. Tulip and Accordeón are the tall, slender pair, with the light lifted on a stem above a small base. Lafleur and Clizia are the low pair, both around 25 cm, but they could hardly be more different in mass: Lafleur weighs 0.2 kg and has a 15 cm flower, while Clizia is 27 cm wide and reads as a full sculptural volume.

Accordeón and Tulip: the tall pair by Marc Sadler

Accordeón Battery takes its form from pleated fabric or the bellows of an accordion. The satin-white shade is 13 cm across and 7.5 cm high, set on a semi-matte anodised aluminium stem above a base only 8.5 cm in diameter and 3 cm high. That small base is the practical point: the lamp needs barely more table than a wine glass, and at 32.7 cm the shade sits above the plates without dominating the view across the table. The light through the pleats is even and diffused. It comes in Prisma Black and Prisma White, and Slamp gives a run time of up to 60 hours per charge, with a dedicated station for recharging several at once, which is why it works well in rows along a long table.

Tulip Battery is the tallest at 38 cm and the most figurative. Each blossom is moulded by hand, so no two are identical, and it rises on a curved stem with a leaf-like element above a base with a gold cracklé detail, in white or black. The footprint is 15 x 8.5 cm, which suits a narrow table or the end of a sideboard. Because the bloom sits high, it reads as a single upright accent rather than a pool of light, and it is best placed where it will not stand directly between two people talking. The LED is dimmable and designed to be easy to replace.

Lafleur and Clizia: the low pair

Lafleur Battery Portable Lamp is an open, ruffled flower of Lentiflex® held on a thin copper wire stem, 26 cm high and 15 cm across. The shade is warmed and shaped by hand, so each one carries slight variations. At 0.2 kg it is by far the lightest of the four, and Slamp has addressed that directly: the matte base (white or black) is magnetic and comes with a metal disc that can sit under a tablecloth, anchoring the lamp without any visible fixing. The light source is a built-in 1.3 W LED giving 150 lm at 2700 K, running 6 hours at full intensity and up to 60 hours dimmed, with a soft-touch dimming button. It comes in Prisma and Velvet finishes.

Clizia Battery is the widest by a margin at 27 x 27 cm and 25 cm high. Adriano Rachele composed the shade from many small modules arranged like a cloud or a treetop, and the light breaks into reflections and shadows rather than a single even glow. The name comes from Clytie, the nymph of Greek myth who turned into a flower that follows the sun. On a table it behaves like a centrepiece: low enough to see over, but broad enough to claim the middle. The Battery version uses a magnetic system and comes in several Mama Non Mama finishes (gold on a dark or light base, black, white) and Fumé.

Choosing for your dinner table

Start with the sightline. When people sit down, the two low lamps keep the glow beneath the level of conversation, so faces stay visible across the table. Lafleur and Clizia both sit around 25 cm, which makes them the safest choice for a table where guests face each other at close range. Accordeón at 32.7 cm lifts the shade higher but keeps the stem thin, so the eye passes around it easily. Tulip, at 38 cm, is better at one end of the table or on a sideboard than in the dead centre.

Then consider the footprint and the table shape. A long rectangular table suits repetition: three or four Accordeón lamps along the centre line take little space thanks to their 8.5 cm bases, and give light at every place. A round table for four suits one Clizia in the middle, where its 27 cm width reads as a single generous centrepiece. A small bistro table or a balcony table suits Lafleur, which uses the least space and weight of all, with the magnetic disc keeping it steady on a cloth.

Finally, think about the character you want. Accordeón is the most architectural and the easiest to repeat. Tulip is a gesture, a single flower that works best alone. Lafleur is delicate and looks right in pairs or small clusters, especially mixing Prisma and Velvet. Clizia is the most decorative and needs space around it to show its layers.

All four are rechargeable and cordless, so the choice is not final for the evening: the same lamp can move from the dining table to a bedside shelf or a windowsill later on. For a wider look at how these compare with cordless designs from other houses, read our guide to the best portable designer lamps, or browse the full Portable Lamps collection.