Steuben Blue Iridescent Shade, ca. 1915
GUEST:
Well, my husband got it at an estate auction probably 17 years ago for $50.
APPRAISER:
$50? And?
GUEST:
Mm-hmm. _ Yeah, I was so angry with him for the $50.
APPRAISER:
Angry, ooh. So this wasn't something...?
GUEST:
It was on top of a china cabinet, so nobody else could see it. And he's tall. He walked up and picked it up.
APPRAISER:
What did they tell him it was?
GUEST:
They didn't.
APPRAISER:
They didn't?
GUEST:
He just bought it because he liked it, thought it was pretty?
APPRAISER:
Right.
GUEST:
We have an old Arts-and-Crafts house, and we're trying to collect Arts and Crafts art glass, and we thought it might be Tiffany.
APPRAISER:
Well, the shade was made by a gentleman named Frederick Carder of Steuben Glass. Oh, really. Made probably around 1915. Frederick Carder was an Englishman who came over to the States and opened up Steuben Glass in Corning, New York, and was one of Tiffany's biggest rivals. There are a lot of aspects of this shade that would make one person think that it was Tiffany. First of all, the shape. It's lined in an opal liner, this white liner that you see. A lot of Tiffany glass and bowls and things have a heart-and-vine decoration, like we see on this piece.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
The color, though, is kind of the giveaway that it's not Tiffany.
GUEST:
Oh, really?
APPRAISER:
It's this beautiful blue that's cased in this opal that really gives it a very, very strong hue. It has fabulous iridescence. The decoration is very desirable by collectors. Have you ever had it appraised or looked at?
GUEST:
Yes, we had, about eight years ago, we had a bunch of stuff on the table and the appraiser came into the house, and as she went through, she would point out and say what the items were. And she said "That's not Tiffany. It's nothing."
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And then about four years ago, I went to an art-glass appraiser. And he said that if I let him buy it, he would appraise it for free.
APPRAISER:
Ooh.
GUEST:
So I was a little hesitant to do that, but I said, "Well, can you give me some idea of what you think it might be?" And he said it might be Lundberg out of California.
APPRAISER:
Interesting.
GUEST:
And he took a lot of pictures of it, but I decided not to let him appraise it for free.
APPRAISER:
It's not signed, so that makes it a little hard for people to distinguish who it is if you're not familiar with this kind of glass. On today's market in an auction, you would expect to see an estimate of about $6,000 to $8,000. It could bring more than that. It doesn't have a base.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
It's the shade only, but bases for this kind of shade are not that hard to find.
GUEST:
Oh, really?
APPRAISER:
It's really in pristine condition, and the color is just absolutely sweet. And I really appreciate you bringing it in.
GUEST:
Thank you so much.
Appraisal Details
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Value can change: The value of an item is dependent upon many things, including the condition of the object itself, trends in the market for that kind of object, and the location where the item will be sold. These are just some of the reasons why the answer to the question "What's it worth?" is so often "It depends."
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