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Skinner Auction, Boston, MA, held a 20th Century Design sale on December 13, 2019. The sale included a diverse selection of French and American glass and lamps, and a sizable collection of Le Verre Francais vases.

The top lot of the sale, #159, was a Bigelow & Kennard Rose Blossom table lamp. It was beautiful and large (21½” diameter), but the final price of $24,600, against a pre-sale estimate of $3,000 – $5,000, was a surprise. Bigelow & Kennard was a Boston company and the sale was in Boston, so there seemed to be a nice symbiosis.

The Bigelow & Kennard lamp sold for more than the second highest lot of the sale, a Tiffany Studios 20″ diameter Daffodil table lamp, lot #30. It sold below it’s estimate of $20,000 – $30,000, realizing $22,140, including buyer’s premium. It was a fairly standard, somewhat boring example, so the result shouldn’t have been unexpected. Regardless, it was a good buy.

The third best result of the sale was a beautiful, 22″ tall, Daum Nancy Rain vase, lot #36. It sold for $19,680, against a pre-sale estimate of $5,000 – $7,000. The estimate was quite conservative, so the competition was strong. Rain is a very desirable subject matter for Daum Nancy. Personally I wasn’t interested in buying the vase because of its monumental size. Huge vases are difficult to pack, transport, display and sell.

The top lot of the group of Le Verre Francais vases was #256, a rare and colorful Lobelias vase. It sold for $7,995, including buyer’s premium, against a pre-sale estimate of only $500 – $700.

For the complete results of the sale, click here.

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Our next show, The Palm Beach Show, is only two weeks away. You can get two free tickets to the show by clicking here. It will be held at the Palm Beach Convention Center, February 13-18, 2020. We haven’t exhibited there in a few years, but decided to give it another try this year in a smaller booth.

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Sotheby’s New York held a Dreaming in Glass sale on December 12, 2019, devoted to the lamps and glass of Tiffany Studios. 43 of the 49 lots offered for sale sold, for a total of $5,292,500, including buyer’s premium. That averaged $123,081 per sold lot. Of the 6 lots that did not sell, most were chandeliers. Following are some of the more interesting results.

The top lot of the sale was #411, a fabulous, 22″ diameter, blue-purple, heavily mottled, Drop Head Dragonfly table lamp. It sold just above its high estimate of $700,000, realizing $884,000, including buyer’s premium.

The top lot of the Tiffany Favrile selection of glass was #406, a rare and very desirable Lava vase that was exhibited at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition world’s fair, held on the grounds of the University of Washington in Seattle in 1909. It sold for $162,500, including buyer’s premium, against a pre-sale estimate of $80,000 – $120,000.

I’ve always loved the Tiffany Favrile rotating inkstand that was sold as lot #423. The same model has occasionally come up for sale at various auction houses over the years. The model has a band of iridescent turtleback tiles around its circumference and three wells at the top, with turtleback lids, in green, blue and red. It sold very well, achieving $60,000, including buyer’s premium, against a pre-sale estimate of $25,000 – $35,000.

For the complete results of the sale, click here.

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Our next show, The Palm Beach Show, is only three weeks away. You can get two free tickets to the show by clicking here. It will be held at the Palm Beach Convention Center, February 13-18, 2020. We haven’t exhibited there in a few years, but decided to give it another try this year in a smaller booth.

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Saturday, 8:45 PM. The show opened today at the unusually late time of 2 PM and will close at 10 PM. There was a decent crowd, but not much action. The show floor is dead now, so it’s fairly torturous staying so late. Tomorrow the hours return to the normal starting time of 11 AM.

Today’s results were disappointing, with only a couple of small sales. But I’m far from throwing in the towel. There were several serious clients today who I hope will return and make purchases.

Sunday, 6:20 PM. The day is almost finished. We had a decent, but unexciting day. There wasn’t much energy in the crowd. As of this minute, we’re having a lackluster show, but we’ll keep chipping away.

Monday, 6:30 PM. Today’s show is almost finished and it was a bad day. There weren’t many people and only a few inquiries. No sales. Doesn’t look like this show is going to be a winner, but anything can happen in the next two days. I need a drink.

Tuesday, 5:40 PM. Oh my, the show is slow and boring. From what I heard, the NFL rented the convention center for an entire month prior to the Super Bowl, so the antiques show was bumped to its earlier date this year. And it really shows. There are fewer people, less interest and fewer sales. We made one good sale today from a client who saw a beautiful Tiffany vase a few days ago and called today to make the purchase.

Wednesday, 4:00 PM. The show is over and I’m happy to report that we ended on a high note. I was prepared not to sell a thing today, the last day, but a new client came to the show and purchased two Tiffany lamps. :>)

This was a very strange show for us. The totals were close to last year’s excellent show, but it didn’t feel like a good show. Traffic was down, as well as interest. We answered fewer questions and made fewer sales. Many of our good clients never showed up. But the proof of the pudding is in the eating. In listening, a few dealers said they did better than last year, but not the majority. Thankfully the show returns to the normal late January dates next year.

Since this blog is being posted on Thursday, January 9th, there will be no new post on Monday, January 13th. My next post will be on Monday, January 20th.

P.S. Thursday. We sold the superb Tiffany 20″ diameter Dragonfly table lamp, pictured above, the day after the show closed to a client who saw it at the show. That means we had a great show, better than last year’s excellent show.

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Our next show, The Palm Beach Show, is approximately one month away. You can get two free tickets to the show by clicking here. It will be held at the Palm Beach Convention Center, February 13-18, 2020. We haven’t exhibited there in a few years, but decided to give it another try this year in a smaller booth.

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