1906 Duffner & Kimberly "Greek" Lamp
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GUEST:
Today I've brought this antique lamp that I think was either, like, bought in 1908 or 1909.
APPRAISER:
Okay, and why do you think that?
GUEST:
Well because my great-great-grandfather was getting married, and his mother, my great-great-great-grandmother, bought him this lamp, and his bride, as a wedding gift. Then, he passed it down to me, and I think it was... We don't quite remember the year that the wedding was in, but we do know that they had a son, their first child, a year after in 1910, so we assumed that it was either 1908 or 1909.
APPRAISER:
Do you know what it is?
GUEST:
Well my grandmother said that she saw a poster and she thought that it was the Tiffany lamp and it was the pineapple one.
APPRAISER:
Okay. Well, you're close, but not quite right. It was made by the Duffner and Kimberly company, which was making lamps at the same time that Louis Comfort Tiffany was making his lamps. In fact, this lamp was made in 1906, and the original store catalog that Duffner and Kimberly produced from 1906 shows this lamp with this shade and this base. The name of it is the Greek lamp, and it's model number 505.
GUEST:
Oh. Is it the 505th product or type of lamp?
APPRAISER:
It's probably not, it's just in that line, it's number 505. So tell me what you like about this lamp.
GUEST:
Um, I like that when it's lit, how it's kind of pink. I also like that its color, it's like it was mixed or blended and not quite like mixed fully and it still has a little bit of white or something in it.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, we call that slag glass. So, it's a leaded glass lamp shade with a bronze base. The finial kind of of looks like a pineapple, but really it's probably a bud, and the finial is the top piece on the very top.
GUEST:
Uh-huh.
APPRAISER:
It's called the Greek lamp because it has all these Greek decorations on there.
GUEST:
Oh!
APPRAISER:
Yeah, so you have the paw feet, and then you have the palmette. And then here on the base you have the egg and dart frieze. And that's very typical that you would find on buildings...
GUEST:
In like Greek.
APPRAISER:
In ancient Greece, yeah, so that's why they called it the Greek lamp.
GUEST:
Huh.
APPRAISER:
It's in good condition, your family has kept it up really well. Where do you have it in the house?
GUEST:
Well, we keep it in my mother's bedroom out on, like, this nightstand, and sometimes we use it like at night when we turn off the lights, but we use that for like reading light.
APPRAISER:
Do have any idea of what value it could be?
GUEST:
Maybe around $5,000?
APPRAISER:
Maybe around $5,000?
GUEST:
Yeah, maybe only... that would be pretty high, actually.
APPRAISER:
You think so? I think that this lamp, if it came to auction in 2014, it would sell somewhere between $6,000 and $8,000.
GUEST:
Wow, that's cool! My grandmother would be really happy.
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