Tiffany Lamp Brightens Pompey Hollow Auction

Norwalk, Conn.

:Antiques At Pompey Hollow's debut auction in this area made an auspicious start on September 21 at the Norwalk Inn. The sale featured a select grouping of several hundred items from fine New England estates and a Virginia home.

Driving the sale's gross total of around $80,000 was a Tiffany Studios lamp that opened at $5,000 with five phone bidders in stiff competition. The lot moved in $1,000 increments until it hammered at $41,400.

The 26-by-22-inch lamp fetched the most attention during preview. The shade, in an elegant olive-green hue, was displayed atop a Hepplewhite sideboard directly in front of the auctioneer's podium.

"Good things did well," said auctioneer Thomas G. Degnen, who plans to continue conducting auctions in this area. "We were happy [with the results]. Most of the better things sold to phone bids."

Degnen did not have a date to offer for his next auction but says another will take place before the end of the year. Instead of holding a monthly auction for its own sake, he would rather accumulate a choice stock of merchandise and then schedule an auction. "We want to keep the auctions at a high level of quality."

Porcelain performed well in the sale, including a set of Limoges fish plates that brought $1,260. A pair of artist-signed Sevres vases, drilled and made into lamps brought $1,045 despite some damage.

A Dan Patch folk art carving, circa 1916, of a sulky and rider fetched $2,300. As the item was a late carving and had some damage issues, Degnen was pleased.

Paintings and furniture were soft in the auction, but a small Irish tea table fetched $1,500, and an English tall case clock with a moon phase dial brought $1,745.

A rare Nippon humidor had a small chunk missing from the interior lid but sold for $805 to a collector in Toronto, Canada.

All prices reported include the 15 percent buyer's premium. For more information, www.pompeyantiquesdirect.com or 860-429-0877.