Tiffany candle lamps lesson

Posted on September 4, 2009 by Philip Chasen

Electric, kerosene and candle versions of Tiffany Studios candle lamps

You would think that all Tiffany candle lamps use candles, but not all do. There are actually three versions — electric, kerosene and candle. All candle lamps have three basic components, the base, the insert and the shade. They may differ in the height of the base, the decoration on the insert and the decoration on the shade. The typical shade is undecorated iridescent gold with beautiful stretch glass.

Candle insert with pulled feather decoration

The candle version has an insert with a spring loaded candle. As the candle burns, the spring pushes it up. The example pictured has pulled feather decoration on the glass insert. This is more common than the solid gold iridescent insert.

Gold iridescent insert with electric socket and pull chain

The electric version has an electric socket for a light bulb. The wire passes down from the socket, through a hole in the bottom of the insert where it enters the base and emerges from a hole in the base. The hole in the base is original from Tiffany Studios on all electric candle lamps. The example pictured has the rarer undecorated gold iridescent glass insert.

Pulled feather insert with kerosene burner and pulled feather decorated chimney

The kerosene version has a wick and a burner. The kerosene is stored in the insert, then absorbed by the wick and burned. This version has a fourth part, the chimney. It’s the rarest of the three versions and the most desirable, especially by collectors of miniature oil lamps.

No post on Monday, Labor Day. Tuesday’s post will be about the results of the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

Setting up at the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show

Posted on September 3, 2009 by Philip Chasen

We do get around in this business — Chicago last week, Southern California before that and Denver a few weeks ago. Now we’re in Baltimore for the biggest and best show of the summer. But since I think like the teacher I was, for me it’s not the last show of the summer, but the first show of the new season.

My booth is almost ready for the public

Setup is much more interesting when a show is large and filled with top quality dealers. Dealers spend much of the time shopping from each other. You can tell how good business is by the pace of activity. Business was good during setup, but not cutthroat, which happens when business is strong. On a personal level, I was successful in buying some very nice items, including a fantastic 14″ diameter Acorn floor lamp and some fine Galle vases. The lamp has removable accessories including a magazine rack, ashtray, and drink tray. 12″ diameter is the usual diameter for double-harp floor bases, so this one must have been special order.

The main aisle of the show, just before carpeting

The show looks fantastic, with incredible quality and diversity. If you’re coming, and I surely suggest you do, give yourself plenty of time to see everything. Fine hotels, right in the Inner Harbor, are available for $67-105/night on hotwire.com. The show opens at noon on Thursday and goes through Sunday, 6 PM. There are some special exhibitors who exhibit at very few shows, including M.S. Rau from New Orleans. The trip to this show will be worth it!

I’ll post results for the show on my Tuesday blog. Monday is Labor Day, so I won’t be writing an entry.

Derek Jeter at the plate at Camden Yards

So what does a tired dealer do after setting up? He goes with his beautiful wife to see the Yankees destroy the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards, right next door. How about same day seats, bought on StubHub.com, directly behind home plate, row 5, at 1/15 the price of the same tickets at Yankee Stadium? It’s a tough business, but somebody has to do it.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

Thank you, Chicago

Posted on August 31, 2009 by Philip Chasen

The Chicago Summer Antiques Show venue

I really had no idea what to expect from this show. The promoter, Rosemary Krieger, decided that the summer antiques show needed a radical change. Attendance at O’Hare the past few years has been steadily declining. So she moved the show to a new venue in downtown Chicago to a building in the Sono section. She’s used this building before for her Modernism show, so she was familiar with it and the neighborhood.

A view of the Sono neighborhood, looking south at downtown Chicago

Personally, the show went well for me, with Tiffany Studios items, including glass, lamps and desk items garnering the most interest. However, every single sale was to an existing client of mine and that was disappointing. Part of doing a show, especially in a new venue, is to meet new clients. I do wish to thank my loyal clients for their business.

Sunday afternoon at 4:00 PM

In speaking personally to a handful of dealers at the show I heard the following comments. One dealer complained that it was one of the worst shows he had ever done. Another dealer did moderately well and told me that he thought the show had very good potential. A third dealer told me he did fairly well and a fourth dealer complained about the light attendance at the show, especially on Sunday. She thought the show promoter had done a poor job of advertising. In her view, the promoter should have advertised aggressively, as this was the first time in a new location. She also complained that there weren’t enough signs in the neighborhood pointing to the location of the show.

Show promoters have a tough job. They have to satisfy both the dealers and the public, so it’s a balancing act for them. What the promoters have to realize is that the dealers are their clients, not the public. Promoters need to make life easier for their dealers. That means that the hours of the show should be consistent with giving the buying public enough hours to shop the show but not making the hours so long that it becomes a burden on the dealers. Shows don’t need to open early on Sunday because no one comes early on Sunday. Shows don’t have to be open late on Saturday because the public leaves early to go to dinner or the theater. Irene Stella has it right with the Pier shows in New York City. They’re open to the public only on Saturday and Sunday. Everyone makes it their business to get there during show hours. Part of the reason that dealers do well is because there’s action and electricity at her shows because things happen fast. Make up your mind soon or that item you’re admiring will be gone. It’s good for everybody — fewer days, shorter hours and the same amount of business.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

An interview with David Rago

Posted on August 24, 2009 by Philip Chasen

David Rago

David Rago is the owner of the Rago Arts and Auction Center, in Lambertville, NJ, specializing in 20th century design. He also appears on The Antiques Roadshow as an appraiser, specializing in ceramics, porcelain, 20th century furniture, and vintage wine.

I submitted several written questions to him.

Q. How has the recession affected your business?

Tiffany Studios Venetian table lamp, lot 409, June, 2009

A. The recession has affected our business in several ways. Most prominently, securing good consignments at reasonable price levels has become the most challenging part. We don’t believe we can BEGIN to evaluate pieces (in the form of estimates, which are driven by reserves) at 2008 or maybe even 2007 levels, which discourages many consignors from giving up pieces. I try to balance our and their expectations by saying that we often get prices at or above levels of a few years ago, but the approach now is to let pieces seek their prices through competitive bidding, NOT by starting at strong prices. We’ve found that buyers/bidders simply don’t want to be told that, to get their hands in the air for an opening bid, they have to be willing to pay anything near what used to be accepted retail. The old auction belief that, to get a record price you have to risk getting a record low price, has never, ever, been more true than now. We sold a Tiffany Venetian lamp in our last major sale (June 09) with an estimate of $27-32k.

Tiffany enamel on copper box, lot 393, June, 2009

It was a rare version with strong glass in pristine condition, fresh from an estate. It brought $81k, a record for the form. In the same sale we had a Tiffany enamel on copper box, almost as clean as the lamp, also fresh to the market, with a fairly strong estimate of $45–55k. Even though we had six “players”, I mean real bidders, on the phone, no one hit it once. We ended up selling it after the sale for under the low estimate. My contention was that, if the estimate were $30–40k, we’d have gotten the $50k for it.

Q. What areas show strength? Weakness?
A. Good things, in good condition, at reasonable prices, seem quite strong. Middle range things with condition issues, offered at regular prices, seem to languish. We just sold the estate of an old school New Hope dealer. The material had been off the market for 25 years and the family put no price restrictions on estimates and reserves. The sale was 100% sold and hammered near the high estimate plus the buyer’s premium of 20%. There was almost no glass in the collection, so this is relevant only in how it informs the marketplace. But we had a room full of active bidders, plus 100 people on the phone, plus 500 people on the Internet, for two solid days. It was like nothing had changed. But one thing HAD changed seriously, and that was the expectation of the seller.

Q. What do you foresee for the coming year?
A. The coming year is at the mercy of the economy, which is at the mercy of I don’t know what. Right now people (at least the ones buying art) mostly have more money than they did five years ago but they feel like they have less because they aren’t as rich as they were a year or two ago. Whether you own stock or real estate or middle range art, you in fact have less. Until people begin to feel comfortable with both their level of wealth AND the state of the economy, I don’t see great changes in the marketplace.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

The road to knowledge is filled with potholes, part I

Posted on August 17, 2009 by Philip Chasen

Marc Bell asked “How did you avoid the pitfalls in the antique lighting business?” Well, Marc, I didn’t. I hit my share of potholes along the learning road.

(Do you have an antiques questions? I’ll try to answer them in future posts. philchasen@gmail.com)

A Tiffany 3-light lily lamp with Quezal shades, similar to my first purchase

I remember the first time I bought a signed lamp. The year was probably 1973. We were at an auction and the auctioneer was explaining that the next item for sale was a Tiffany 3-light lily lamp with Quezal shades. We were the successful bidders and paid $600 for it. My wife and I were really nervous about this huge purchase. I told my mother and she told me I was nuts. Thanks, Mom. She just couldn’t conceive of a lamp costing that much money.

Now I had my first antique lamp and I was eager to try and sell it. I took good photos and advertised the lamp in Hobbies magazine. Hobbies was an important monthly publication for both collectors and dealers. (All of you old-timers should remember the good old days when it was possible to sell items by advertising in magazines. For you younger collectors, there really was an antiques world prior to the Internet.)

I waited for over a month until the magazine was published. I got a few calls and one was long-distance from a collector in Iowa. (How many of you remember when everyone would stop whatever they were doing because someone was calling LONG DISTANCE? It was exciting!) He told me the lamp was a marriage – the lamp base was from one company and the shades from another. Apparently a marriage in a lamp was a bad thing. I didn’t know that! I had assumed that the word Quezal was a Tiffany word, like Favrile. Pssssssssss. The air just zoomed out of my bubble! But it didn’t end badly. This caller was willing to buy the lamp as is. I learned a big lesson that didn’t cost me a penny, in fact I earned a small profit. I was lucky because most lessons in the antiques business are much more costly.

And that, folks, was the ignominious beginning to my education as a lamp dealer.

Tomorrow you can read lesson #2, which took place a few years later. It’s much juicier than this one, guaranteed!

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

Beware of Tiffany Studios fakes, especially on eBay

Posted on August 14, 2009 by Philip Chasen

Tiffany fake #1

Tiffany fake #3

Tiffany fake #2

Thanks to Hank Hancock for the idea for this blog and the photos.

The problem with fake Tiffany Favrile glass items is not widespread, but you certainly want to avoid becoming one of the people who gets stuck with one. The following examples have all been for sale on eBay recently. It’s hard to say whether the sellers are nefarious and know they are selling reproductions or just ignorant, but my experience tells me a fair percentage of them know the truth.

Tiffany fake #4

Tiffany fake #6

Tiffany fake #5

So how can you tell? Sorry, but there’s no easy answer. Familiarity with the shapes, colors and decorations of authentic Tiffany Favrile glass is the best way to tell. To the trained eye, these items stick out like sore thumbs. It’s not necessary to look at fake signatures if you already know the item is fake just by looking at it. But there’s the rub. It takes quite a bit of time and effort to train one’s eye.

So what do you do? You have to buy from reputable dealers, collectors and auction houses that will absolutely guarantee the authenticity of the items they sell. Anyone can make a mistake, but only an honest person will make good on correcting a mistake, should one occur. This advice may be self-serving, but nonetheless, it’s absolutely true. Remember the old adage “If you don’t know your art, know your dealer”.

Fake Tiffany counterclockwise signature

Also look at Tiffany signatures. 99% of the time, an authentic signature is counter-clockwise. Many fake signatures are clockwise. The forger for this vase knew to make it counterclockwise, but it’s still an awful fake. After looking at enough signatures, it gets increasingly easy to recognize a genuine one.

Please send me your suggestions or questions about art glass, lamps, Louis Icart, shows, auctions, etc. If it’s interesting, I’ll answer your question in a future blog entry.

Call or write and let me know what you would like to buy, sell, or trade. philchasen@gmail or 516-922-2090. And please visit my website. chasenantiques.com

Philip Chasen Antiques

The blog for chasenantiques.com

Tag Archives: authentic Tiffany

Tiffany candle lamps lesson

Setting up at the Baltimore Summer Antiques Show

Thank you, Chicago

An interview with David Rago

The road to knowledge is filled with potholes, part I

Beware of Tiffany Studios fakes, especially on eBay