An online buyer beat out competitors to snap up this Tiffany Studios dragonfly table lamp with unusual skeleton bird pierced base. It had been sourced from a local estate, stood 30 inches tall was marked 1507-20 on the shade and 442 on the base. Estimated at $200/300,000, it brought $250,000, the top price realized in three days of sales.
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Catalog Photos Courtesy Unique & Antiques
ASTON, PENN. – A Tiffany Studios Dragonfly table lamp on a rare bird skeleton base led nearly 1,600 lots offered in Uniques & Antiques three-day sale August 3-5. Consigned from a local estate, the lamp, which was marked on both the base and shade, brought $250,000, squarely within its estimate range. The shade relates to one illustrated in Egon Neustadt’s The Lamps of Tiffany and it sold to an online bidder on the second day of the sale, in a session titled “The Artisan Studio Auction.”
Uniques and Antiques put most of the higher-valued items in that session, with a sizeable collection from Katherine Mezger, who is still alive. Mezger had collected works from George Nakashima and many realized prices high enough to put them in the top tiers of the sale results. Leading the group of nearly 50 works by, and attributed to, Nakashima, was an authenticated coffee table, made from a single slab of English walnut with a distinctive butterfly joint, that sold to a buyer in Europe for $28,125. It was followed at $21,250 by an authenticated George Nakashima Craftsman dresser chest with drawers that a local buyer will be collecting.
Several pieces of George Nakashima seating furniture were offered, either individually or in small group lots. Bringing $18,750 was an authenticated walnut sofa with angled slat back and two paddle arms and dark olive-green cushions. The same model but without arms had cushions in the same upholstery and finished at $12,500; a single seat walnut lounge armchair with matching upholstery brought $11,250. If you wanted that model without arms, you would have had to pay $8,750.
An iconic form, it was perhaps unsurprising that George Nakashima’s single slab-top coffee table, made from English walnut with his trademark butterfly joint, did so well. It was the top-selling Nakashima work from the nearly 50-piece collection of Katherine Mezger. A buyer in Europe, bidding on the phone, took this to $28,125 ($5/8,000).
Kent Jackson, Uniques and Antiques’ general manager and founding partner, said they worked with the Nakashima studio to have things authenticated and those that got the thumbs-up from the studio achieved significantly higher prices than those that did not. “We had interest in those from all over,” he said, with buyers from both near and far.
The sale featured considerably more than just Tiffany and Nakashima, and more than just furniture. Much of what was offered brought prices higher than expected. A figural wall sculpture by Frederick Weinberg (American, Twentieth Century) made of a white painted metal armature with plaster figures that measured 50 by 52 inches tripled its high estimate when it sold to a buyer from the American South, bidding on the phone, for $12,500; Weinberg’s figural archer wall sculpture closed out at $6,250. Ludwig Sander’s “Sioux III” 1971 abstract color field composition made $7,500, while Hunt Slonem’s impasto on board painting of birds flew to $4,275.
Jackson said that the sale exceeded expectations and achieved a total of more than $1.25 million, well above the $913,000 aggregate high estimates for all three sessions combined. “The stars aligned, and prices were strong all the way around. Nakashima and Midcentury Modern furniture still sell well.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house.
Uniques and Antiques’ next auction is scheduled for September 28.
For additional information, www.uniquesandantiques.com or 610-485-7400.
