Handel Cattail Lamp, ca. 1915
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GUEST:
I bought it in the late '60s, uh, in Los Angeles from an antique dealer. In fact, I still have the, the receipt.
APPRAISER:
Really? Now, do you, do you remember what year?
GUEST:
I believe it was 1967.
APPRAISER:
1967. Do you, what did you pay for it?
GUEST:
$130 plus tax.
APPRAISER:
At the time, that was a very fair price...
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
For this particular kind of lamp, which is a Handel lamp. During that time period, that's just when people were starting to take notice of Tiffany lamps. And this does resemble a Tiffany leaded-glass lamp. But it's not, it is a Handel. This lamp is circa 1915, and at that time, people really didn't necessarily differentiate between the lamps. Every time they saw a leaded-glass shade, they'd say, "Oh, it must be a Tiffany," or, "This is Handel, it must be just as good as a Tiffany." And the prices were fairly similar. Over the years, that has changed, because we know a lot more about the lamps, and how many were made, and what the operations actually entailed to create the lamps. And what's interesting about this is, I'm calling it a leaded-glass lamp, but in fact, it's not really a leaded-glass lamp. It's really more of an imitation of a leaded-glass lamp, and this is something that Handel specialized in. They did, by the way, make leaded-glass lamps, but this doesn't happen to be one of them. This is an overlay lamp. It's called a cattail shade. Now, on the outside, it looks as though this is all leaded glass. However, when you take off the shade, you don't see any of the leading on this side. Instead, what you see are these large pieces of glass that are held into place with the same metal overlay that's folded over to secure it. Now, you're probably wondering, how did the color get here? Because these are not individually colored pieces of glass. This was a colored finish that was put on underneath the metal overlay. I talked to my colleagues at the glass table, and we feel that if this were to sell in a gallery, it would sell between $10,000 and $12,000.
GUEST:
Whoa!
APPRAISER (laughs): Yeah.
GUEST:
Oh, Lord!
APPRAISER:
You held onto it, and, uh...
GUEST:
Oh, my gosh!
APPRAISER:
You've got a real gem.
GUEST:
I am just shocked.
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