'Antiques Roadshow' guest's jaw drops after expert revealed the value of her floor lamp
"Antiques Roadshow" is famous for leaving guests speechless with a massive appraisal. While long-time fans immediately know how important some items could be, guests are often oblivious. In one such episode, a guest who brought a weird-looking floor lamp was gobsmacked after learning that it was from the famed Tiffany Studios. The owner, who called it her 'weird brain lamp,' was in love with the item by the time the expert finished with the appraisal.
In the episode, the guest shared that she got the unique floor lamp from her grandmother years ago. "This particular piece has been in our family for as long as I can remember," she shared. "When I was a little girl, this lamp lived in my grandmother's home. We used to love playing with it when it was lit; we would call it the brain lamp," she added.
She shared that as kids they used to do a lot of dress-ups, and they used the lamp as a spotlight for their performances. "It's very... it's a very heartfelt piece for our family," she said. The expert, Kathleen Bailey, then took over, explaining that there is something called brain glass, but the lamp wasn't made of it. "This is actually a turtle-back tile iridescent glass," she explained. The glass was a little thinner than usual for such large objects, and the base of the lamp was made of bronze.
"This is a bronze base patinated bronze all the way down to the feet with the lily pad. The good news is it is Tiffany," Bailey noted, delighting the guest. "Oh my gosh! Oh, that's fantastic!" the guest exclaimed as she knew how important the maker was. The expert added that the foot of the lamp was signed and it could be dated circa 1910.
She then told the guest that there was a chain that was added later on, but it could be reversed to make the lamp as it was originally. "That does hurt the value a little bit; with regard to replacing the chain, it wouldn't be very expensive. My guess is it would be a few hundred dollars," she noted, adding that the guest would need to take it to a Tiffany specialist to get the job done.
Before delivering the appraisal, she told the guest that restoring the lamp would add another $500 to $600 to its value. Bailey then explained that she went through a few auction records and found out that the floor lamp was quite rare. "I would say today in a retail market you might find this piece at $30,000 to $40,000."
The guest was nearly knocked off her feet as she wasn't expecting to hear such a large sum. Her jaw nearly dropped to the floor as she could say nothing more than, "Oh my gosh!" She then went on to thank the appraiser for the massive valuation. "Wow! Kathy thank you so much I can't believe it!" she exclaimed in the end.
