Tag Archives: Tiffany Studios

The road to knowledge is filled with potholes, part I

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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

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

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Tiffany fake #1

Tiffany fake #1

Tiffany fake #3

Tiffany fake #3

Tiffany fake #2

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 #4

Tiffany fake #6

Tiffany fake #6

Tiffany fake #5

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

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

So-so results at the Pasadena Antiques Show

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The Pasadena Antiques Show, August 9, 2009

The Pasadena Antiques Show, August 9, 2009

It’s really tough work sitting at a show when there’s very little to do. Kinda  like Chinese torture.  The show opened on Friday. I wish I knew why. There were very few people and of those who showed, there seemed to be even fewer buyers. 8 hours of sitting. It’s easy when people are asking questions and making purchases, but not this Friday.

Irene Stella seems to have it right. She’s the promoter of the Pier Show in NYC. It’s a 2-day show. The public comes en masse and everyone makes their decisions quickly whether to purchase or not. It’s good for the public and good for the dealers. I would like to see the Pasadena show shortened to 2 days, but it’ll never happen.

Saturday was much more lively. Attendance was good, interest was good, especially in Tiffany Studios desk set items, and sales were decent. Now if only Sunday would be like Saturday, the show would have been good, but alas, no dice. Attendance wasn’t very good and interest was poor.

In my opinion, the main problem is that there isn’t just one important show in the LA area that everyone MUST attend. There’s one little show here and one little show there and as a result, LA is a difficult city in which to do well. It doesn’t matter how wealthy the residents are if they don’t show up. I say that because I’m always amused by show promoters when they try to convince me that I should do a new show in some city. “Do you know what the average income is within a 50-mile radius of the show?” I couldn’t care less, because that’s not what’s most important. It’s getting those people to attend the show that’s most important and that’s way tougher than it sounds.

On to Chicago in a couple of weeks and then Baltimore over the Labor Day weekend. That’s the one I’m looking most forward to. It’s big and important, so everyone shows up. It doesn’t guarantee I’ll do well, but at least I’ll have a fighting chance.

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.

Tiffany Studios numbering explained

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A typical Tiffany Studios numbered signature

A typical Tiffany Studios numbered signature

Tiffany Studios numbered their vases. Each number is a unique registry number that corresponds to that vase only. The earliest vases from 1892-3 had numbers and no letters.  In 1894, the  prefix A was introduced with the first vase being A1. Each subsequent vase received the next consecutive number until A9999 was reached and then the next letter, B, was used. When the entire alphabet was completed, the prefix letter was changed to a suffix letter, so the next number after Z9999 would be 1A, followed by 2A, etc. After 9999A, the next number would be 1B, until the entire alphabet would be used up.

Tiffany vases can be dated according to a chart in the Robert Koch book, Louis C. Tiffany’s Glass Bronzes Lamps, on page 56. Prefix A corresponds to 1894, suffix A to 1906, etc.

A typical Tiffany Studios unnumbered signature

A typical Tiffany Studios unnumbered signature

Items without numbers were generally utilitarian items like bowls or glasses that came in sets. These were part of general production and usually unnumbered. The signatures might be “L.C.T.” or “L.C.T. Favrile” or “L.C.Tiffany Favrile” or some other variation.

A typical Tiffany Studios signature with a shape number

A typical Tiffany Studios signature with a shape number

Later items, especially pastel ones, have numbers that do not include a letter. These are shape numbers, not registry numbers. For example, 1881 is a trumpet vase and is repeated on all trumpet vases of the same size and shape. (Credit Gordon (Hank) Hancock for this information. Hank is writing a book on Tiffany pastel glass that will be very useful.)

A typical Tiffany Studios late production compound number signature

A typical Tiffany Studios late production compound number signature

Compound signatures include the shape number first and then the serial number. This system was developed late into Tiffany production, so it will not be found on earlier vases. The example pictured shows that the vase is shape 1525, with serial number 9008M. To the best of my knowledge, this has never been explained before in writing.

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