Airplane Propeller Floor Lamp, ca. 1955
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GUEST:
I believe it's a... airplane propeller that's been repurposed into a floor lamp. It was given to me by my dad, who, when he started to have grandkids, was worried about... it's a very heavy lamp. He was worried about it falling and smashing a grandkid. So it was given to me. And that's about all I know about it.
APPRAISER:
Do you know where he got it?
GUEST:
It was either at a flea market or an antique shop in either Tulsa or Muskogee, Oklahoma.
APPRAISER:
You remember what he paid for it?
GUEST:
He said he didn't pay more than $50 for it, so. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
All right, well, let's dig into a little bit about it. What it is, is a great piece of modern design. It's just stunning. Looks even better lit up here. So it is an airplane propeller. And the first thing I said is let's go over to my militaria guys and get a feel for where do we think... and what kind of bird did this thing come off of?
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
Because you're right, it's massive. It's incredibly heavy. You know, this thing sits here at about 46 inches tall to the base. 15 inches, each one of these shades. So as we worked with our militaria guys, we looked at the size of the base, the length of the propeller. And this piece is more than likely from a World War I bomber.
GUEST:
Whoa.
APPRAISER:
You see the trench art coming out of World War I, we see boxes made out of propellers. Never seen a floor lamp. And that's what is driving us all to it. So we believe that this was probably taken off of an aircraft, coming out of service in the 1920s. And then sometime in the 1950s, with very much what was going on in the Mid-Century Modern movement, this was converted into a lamp.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Now, you could imply that it was made earlier and the design aesthetic of the propeller was ahead of its time. I think in this case the way it's cut, the way it's put together, it was more than likely assembled in the 1950s. We're never going to know.
GUEST:
Right.
APPRAISER:
Now, when you get into propellers, they're all marked on the hub. Which would have been great if we could have had that, but unfortunately we don't have it. I scoured around the edge, couldn't find anything. So we know the best thing we can go with is a very large World War I aircraft. Given the two segments, I think the Mid-Century Modern design buyer is actually going to pay more today than the militaria collector. I think a conservative auction estimate would be between $2,000 and $3,000.
GUEST (chuckles) Wow. That's ama... that... I said it, that is amazing. I was not expecting that.
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