While Alberto Giacometti first designed the Étoile table lamp circa 1935, following his death in 1966, his brother Diego continued to cast the model along with his own original furniture and lighting designs. A handwritten note signed and dated by Diego attests that the artist sold the present example, along with a Figure floor lamp and a Berceau low table, to Irvin Shapiro in 1969. Shapiro may have crossed paths with the artist through his work as a producer and distributor of foreign films. His company, Films Around the World, introduced American audiences to the work of French filmmakers such as Jean Renoir and Jean-Luc Godard, among others.