Duffner & Kimberly Floor Lamp, ca. 1905
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GUEST:
I got it from my father's estate.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
And my father had inherited it from his father. And the family story is is that this was purchased by my grandfather in about 1930 from the antiques department at Marshall Field's in Chicago. My grandmother was born and raised in Prince Edward Island. And she and my father would go and have summers back there. And my grandfather, being the good husband that he was, cleaned out the entire apartment and got rid of all the furniture, all the rugs, everything else, and loaded up on the antiques, and brought them into the apartment so that when my grandmother came back, there wasn't one thing that she had recognized at all. It was all the new.
APPRAISER:
Great story.
GUEST:
And the punchline, of course, is that she was not at all happy with my grandfather. And this lamp was one of the pieces that he had purchased.
APPRAISER:
All right, now do you know anything about it, have you ever had it appraised or anything like that?
GUEST:
No. We bought it from the estate about 15 years ago. This lamp and another one, and two rugs, and...
APPRAISER:
(laughing): So a whole house load.
GUEST:
and a table. So we paid $350 for all of this.
APPRAISER:
For everything.
GUEST:
For everything.
APPRAISER:
Basically it's a very attractive lamp, and it's made by Duffner & Kimberly. This lamp is made by two people that saw Tiffany as their competitors. Duffner & Kimberly was in New York in the very early years of the 20th century. This was probably made 1905, 1906, right around there. And they were only in business really because of sort of financial consideration for a short period of time. But they always made great, very high quality lamps like this. It's unusual, I don't think we've ever done a D&K or Duffner & Kimberly floor lamp. This is a beautiful example. It's a telescoping, which is sort of like I've telescoped it up a little bit here. You had it down lower.
GUEST:
Yes.
APPRAISER:
And it's sort of a little... it looks like it hasn't telescoped in a long time.
GUEST:
Yeah, that's right.
APPRAISER:
And it's this beautiful scalloped or fish scale design. I think these are sort of simulated bellflowers. Overall, nice big shade. You have a few little condition areas where some of the panels are cracked, and there's a few little pieces of glass missing. The base is patinated bronze.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Overall, it looks to me like a million bucks. But realistically, this is something that you could get fixed up, and it would be a better lamp in the future.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
I think even now, in its sort of somewhat compromised position with a couple pieces of glass missing, you're looking at $15,000.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
One-five thousand dollars for retail.
GUEST:
Oh, very good.
APPRAISER:
And if it were conserved and made whole again.
GUEST:
Yes. You'd be up from there.
APPRAISER:
Oh great, well thank you very much. Thanks for coming in. I really appreciate it.
Appraisal Details
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