Tiffany Studios "Saxifrage" Candlestick, ca. 1905
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GUEST:
This was a gift to me from some friends. They bought it, I think, like, ten or 15 years ago at a garage sale, and they've had it in their bathroom ever since. And whenever I visit them, I've always admired it. And they gave it to me as a gift, which was really exciting, and I just love it. I think it's beautiful and delicate.
APPRAISER:
This is pretty remarkable. And we can see from the, the bottom, um, it is made by, uh, Tiffany Studios in New York.
GUEST:
I saw that.
APPRAISER:
You can see the mark, yep.
GUEST:
I didn't know if it was, uh... Real. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
Yep, no, it is. There's a little, um, applied plaque here with the Tiffany Studios, New York mark. You can see as much on the base here as on the top, it has just a wonderful patination, the verdigris patination. Made out of bronze and probably dates from about 1905. Tiffany Studios are really on the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement, and really these beautiful, elegant-- I mean, it's a very organic form. The leaves are amazing in that each one is an individual leaf that emanates here from the base. So there's an incredible amount of work involved in that, it's not just sort of a, you know, a large cast base that has some detailing on it, but, uh, each piece is, uh, you know, these were individually...
GUEST:
So those were individually made and then soldered together?
APPRAISER:
Yeah-- the stem is graceful and elegant. One of the things that attracted me the most is the decoration up in here. Each of these, such a fine and delicate individual, you know, bronze wire there, it's beautiful. And then the top here, you can see where the candlestick comes in. The cast has this great detail and, and design. And this is a particularly rare pattern. Um, it's actually called a saxifrage pattern, something that just comes up very infrequently. At auction, um, if I were to estimate, um, one candlestick-- not a pair, but just a single-- I would be looking probably in the $15,000 to $20,000 range.
APPRAISER &
GUEST:
(both laughing)
APPRAISER:
So it was a very generous gift.
GUEST:
Oh, my God, I, I owe him a big dinner in Paris.
APPRAISER:
A big dinner, yes. (exclaims) Wonderful.
GUEST:
Whoo-hoo! (laughing) All right. Well, those were great friends. (laughs)
Appraisal Details
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