Pairpoint Puffy Roma Shade Table Lamp, ca 1905
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GUEST:
I brought a lamp that was my grandparents'. As long as I could remember, it's been in our family, and then my mother's or my parents. I didn't know really anything about it other than our family just loved it. And my mom passed away a few years ago, and I was the one of the 11 children that ended up with it, so...
APPRAISER:
Do you know where your grandparents got it?
GUEST:
I really don't know where they got it.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
As you see, on the side panels, it looks like a Venice scene.
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
I've been looking for years to try to find one like it and hadn't seen one like it. And so, I'd like to know just whatever we can find out about it.
APPRAISER:
Sure. So, this is a Pairpoint puffy table lamp. Pairpoint lamps came in three different sizes-- the table size, then there was the boudoir size, and also the candle size. So, this is the larger size of the table size. Pairpoint made these from about 1890 to about 1920s. Stylistically, I would probably date this particular one from about 1900 to 1910. Pairpoint was manufactured in New Bedford, Massachusetts, but it was retailed at different stores, and it was a luxury good at the time. It was made for the upper classes, and they were expensive. These were selling for upwards of $125.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
They were sold at major kind of department stores. So, like Shreve and Co. or Tiffany & Co. This is a, what we call, it's a blown-out and reverse-painted shade. So, it's blown into a mold, it's acid-finished on the outside, and then enameled on the interior. And then they put it in a kiln and re-fired it. Now, the shades came different from the bases, so you could select your shade and you could select your base. So, the base is probably original to this lamp, and it's a Pairpoint base, as well. What's cool about this shade and what got me really excited about this is that this is a very rare style shade.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
Value today depends really on the shade and especially with the Venetian scenes, which were so popular. Conservatively, we would estimate this to sell at auction between $5,000 and $7,000.
GUEST:
Oh, very nice.
APPRAISER:
Yeah!
GUEST:
I'm not going to sell it at auction,
APPRAISER:
(laughing)
GUEST:
but it's really nice to know that. My mother would have been happy. We had to come several years ago when ROADSHOW was in Tulsa, so that she could take it. And so, I wore her sweater today so that she... would be like she was here.
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