'Antiques Roadshow' guest tears up after expert revealed the staggering value of her 'ugly' lamp
It's not normal for someone to just pick up something off the street, especially when it doesn't even look aesthetically appealing. But turns out it's not such a bad idea, since it could be an artifact that could fetch a hefty valuation on platforms such as "Antiques Roadshow." It sounds like a dream, but it became a reality for a guest who found a lampshade in the street and realized that it was a Louis C. Tiffany creation worth thousands of dollars.
In the episode of the PBS show, the guest brought the unique table lamp to the attention of the world. She revealed that she didn't pay a penny for it as she had found the lamp during a walk. “I was taking a walk in the morning and I got about four houses down from where I live and there was a sign that said ‘Free’. And so I walked by it the first day, and then the second day I thought about it again, and I thought ‘Well I’ll take this. And it’s pretty ugly but I can give it to somebody, but it’s a lamp, so I’ll just take it," she said.
She shared that she got the lamp home and took it to her neighbor to see if she could cut the old cord and fix it for her. However, her neighbor gave her some sound advice and asked her not to touch anything. “He said the plug alone is really old and that I should wait and find out about the lamp before I cut it off," she told expert Arlie Sulka.
The expert took a closer look at the item and revealed that it was a rather important piece of art. “It's made by Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc., which is one of the names of Louis Comfort Tiffany's companies," Sulka explained. She added that the shade carried a gilded bronze base with an enamel design around the foot. "Here's what we call a damascene blown-glass shade with wonderful iridescence on the outside," she mentioned, talking about the shade.
The expert explained that the shades came in different colors and that there is a "sort of a hierarchy of value" in the colors. The guest's lampshade was caramel, which made it desirable. "It’s intact and the shade is one of the better colors," Sulka pointed out. She estimated that the lamp dates back to the 1920s. She then went on to take the shade off to show the inside where it was marked “LCT Favrile.” Sulka explained that ‘favrile’ was Tiffany’s “trademark word for homemade.”
Getting down to the numbers, Sulka stated: “In a retail venue, something like this could sell for between $10,000 and $15,000.” This naturally shocked the guest, who wasn't expecting her 'street find' to be worth this much. “Oh my God,” she said before starting to wipe away tears.
Sulka went on to share some advice for the owner to keep the lamp's value intact. “You definitely want to get it rewired because there's absolutely no value in original wiring," she told the guest.
She further advised her to never transport the piece as a whole like she did before, as the bulk of the value was reserved in the shade. “And if you broke the shade, the base would be worth about $500 to $1,000," she said in the end.
