Made circa 1890s and inscribed “L.C.T.,” this Tiffany Favrile Calyx footed lily-form glass sprouted to $1,872, the highest price of the sale.
Review by Kiersten Busch
EVANSDALE, IOWA — In Iowa Estate Auctions’ Exceptional Spring Antique Auction, only four lots were passed out of the 301 that crossed the block, earning a sell-through rate of just under 99 percent. Items on offer in the live, in-house gallery sale included antiques, furnishings and decorative art from a Midwest picker and an Iowa collector.
A Tiffany Favrile Calyx glass in the form of an opalescent footed lily was the top lot, blooming to $1,872. The art glass piece was made circa 1890s and was inscribed “L.C.T.” Two additional Tiffany lots were offered in the sale, including another Favrile art glass piece. This example, an opalescent vase with gold iridized pulled amber feathers, inscribed “L.C. Tiffany Favrile,” was made circa 1900 and flew to $792. The third Tiffany lot, earning $108, comprised two sterling silver items: a perfume bottle in the shape of a heart and an endless knot pendant.
If bidders were in need of antique pine furniture, 23 lots were offered, ranging in price from just $7 for an early American painted pine rope bed, to $1,224 for a pine kitchen cupboard or pine safe. The two-piece cupboard or pie safe hailed from the Nineteenth Century and still had its original two-tone gray paint underneath a later ivory-colored repainting.
Leading a group of 23 pieces of pine furniture, this kitchen cupboard or pie safe made in the Nineteenth Century still had its original paint and closed its doors and drawers for $1,224.
While cupboards and cabinets took the highest prices of the category — $864 for a painted farmhouse jelly cupboard and $648 for a New England painted corner cabinet — other types of pine furniture piqued the interest of bidders: a New England hutch top table ($324), a Nineteenth Century diminutive painted Shaker chest ($158), a primitive painted carpenter’s chest ($130) and a blue-painted cob box ($94), among others, found new homes.
A leaded glass hanging pendant lamp from the early Twentieth Century led a group of 22 lighting fixtures. The inverted onion-form lamp was unmarked and contained a design consisting of stylized foliates in variegated glass with rippled green glass leaves. With a gilt bronze rope border, it swung to $792. The additional 21 lots of lighting ranged in price from the $14 realized for a Brian Maytum Studios cranberry glass oil lamp, to a luminous $684 for an antique Prairie School table lamp made from gilt bronze, with a slag panel shade and embossed horseshoe mounts.
A unique yet well-represented category in the sale was German bisque dolls, of which 10 lots were offered, with all selling. Two bisque head child dolls with jointed bodies stood at $720 to lead the group. Both dolls — one of which was made by Simon Halbig and was clothed in an early dress, while the other had pierced ears, no clothing and was made by Handwerk — had socket heads and sleep eyes.
Many different German bisque doll companies were represented within the 10 lots: an open-mouthed baby doll by Catterfelde ($151), a bonnet-head doll with a cloth body and period clothes most likely by Hertwig ($144), a baby doll with an open mouth and blue sleep eyes by Kestner ($108), a child doll with auburn hair by Clay & Hahn Walkure ($72) and an open-mouthed child doll with an original wig by Schoenau-Hoffmeister ($58) were some of the diverse offerings.
Prices quoted include buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, 319-883-5712 or www.iowaestateauctions.com.
