Dirk Van Erp Table Lamps, ca. 1909
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GUEST:
They were part of an estate. My, my aunt had ended up with them. They were once my grandmother's, and she got them through marriage, and when she passed away, I got them.
APPRAISER:
You know this is a Dirk van Erp lamp because it's marked "Dirk van Erp."
GUEST:
This one, yeah.
APPRAISER:
In addition to having the rare closed-box mark, which is an early designation for van Erp, it's got the name D'Arcy Gaw in it. And D'Arcy Gaw was a designer that worked with van Erp, only the earliest part of his production, around 1909. D'Arcy Gaw was from Chicago. Van Erp practiced metalsmithing at the shipyards in San Francisco. And I don't know that it's true, but the story that we hear is that D'Arcy Gaw was a Russian spy who was with van Erp to get secrets about the naval shipyard. But whatever happened, she was gone soon. And you could see the earlier marks after she was gone, the same closed-box mark, but where "D'Arcy Gaw" was was hammered out, was chiseled out, so there is just an empty, scratchy spot there. But what you've got on this lamp is a real D'Arcy Gaw mark. But even without the D'Arcy Gaw mark, you would know this is her work because of several things. Number one: this vented cap, you don't really see those. There's a lot of extra work in venting a cap like this. Only the earlier shades that I've seen have had vented caps, especially something as complicated as this. If you look at the later Dirk van Erp lamps, these straps end under the cap and under the band. So you don't have all this additional detail work with rivets showing. It's a lot more labor-intensive to make these articulated straps with riveting. You don't also see on the later lamps these rolled rims. This rolled rim is really hard to do. This is mica, which is easier to see from the inside. When you hold it up to the light, there's a slight orange cast to it, another indication of original mica. Now, you were told that the mica was replaced?
GUEST:
They, they said they thought it had been. I didn't know-- is that the case?
APPRAISER:
No, it's beautiful early mica. And furthermore, you see little holders, these place holders?
GUEST:
Yeah.
APPRAISER:
When the mica has been replaced, these have to be unbent. It will bend and you can bend it back, but it loses some of the patination. The patina on, on this lamp is spectacular. I have goosebumps. This is glorious. That color, nobody can fake that color. This is 100% straight and true. It's called a beanpot base. This is the Dirk van Erp windmill mark. He was Dutch, and it says "Dirk van Erp" inside of a closed box. But above Dirk van Erp, it says "D'Arcy Gaw"-- D-apostrophe-A-R-C-Y, her first name, and Gaw, G-A-W. So it's a really fabulous early lighting fixture.
GUEST:
Really!
APPRAISER:
Now, let's look at the next one. You can see the vented shade once again, early aspect of van Erp's work. Beautiful marbled mica, slight orange cast to it. Exposed strapping with rivets. This is under the trumpet base. All these lamps are rare. They're fragile, they fell out of favor. These are all one-of-a-kind bench-made lighting fixtures by a master. I think they were fairly expensive for the time.
GUEST:
Oh.
APPRAISER:
My guess is, a good van Erp lamp like this might have been $40 or $50 in 1909.
GUEST:
Oh, really?
APPRAISER:
The prices of van Erp lamps, like so many things over the past decade, have dropped in value. On today's market at auction, I think each of these lamps are worth between $15,000 and $20,000. I think it's safe to say they're $30,000 to $40,000 with a Dirk van Erp at auction. 15 years ago, this might have been a $75,000 lamp. And this, certainly, $25,000 to $50,000 lamp.
GUEST:
Really?
APPRAISER:
I've seen 2,000, 3,000 pieces of van Erp. I've seen the D'Arcy Gaw mark maybe ten times.
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