'Antiques Roadshow' guest broke down after expert revealed the value of lamps gifted by a late friend
Items like Rolex watches and Tiffany lamps are objects that often get massive appraisals on "Antiques Roadshow" and leave the guests stunned. For one guest, the appraisal for Tiffany lamps turned out to be even more special as he got them as a gift from his late friend. The show's expert, Arlie Sulka, nearly left him in tears as she estimated that the two Tiffany Studios lamps could be collectively worth about $130,000.
In the episode, the guest shared that the two lamps were passed on to him after his friend's death, and while he kept them for years, he didn't know much about them. "He told me that they were Tiffany, and that the floor lamp was originally in New York, I think, in the '40s," he said. He added that the second one he bought was in Palm Springs, Los Angeles, but he didn't know how much. Sulka then took over to explain the provenance and the details of the two lamps. "They are Tiffany Studios lamps, both of these are lamps, or what I would call geometric lamps, but they have a little bit of decoration, they're a combination. You have a geometric background on the larger lamp, and then you have the decoration through here. These are what we call the woodbine pattern. And then on the floor lamp, for that pattern, we have a number of names. It's called swirling leaf, swirling lemon leaf, or lemon leaf," she explained to the guest.
She went on to add that, according to her, the lamps were on the early side, and one of them was circa 1905. She estimated this because the lamps had a big shade, and the glass was very transparent. "At the time, when people were first using electricity, or even using fuel, in order to get any light, the glass had to be very transparent," she said. She then took the cap off the smaller lamp and showed the guest the signature of Tiffany Studios, New York. "It then bears a number with a dash. In the old days, certain people had speculated that that meant that the shade was a special order. But now scholars are tending to believe that it meant that it's an early lamp," she explained.
She then noted that even though the sockets were replaced, the rest of the elements were original, which added a lot of value to the items. "On this lamp, it's on a senior floor base, it's decorated. There were two kinds of decorated senior floor bases. There's this one, and then there was a pod-decorated base. That one's a little more desirable, but there's nothing wrong with this. It has a wonderful finish on it," she added.
She noted that the color complemented the shade well, and it had the signature tag of the maker as well. Coming to the appraisal, Sulka estimated that the bigger lamp would command an insurance value of $85,000. This surprised the guest, who nearly broke down into tears.
To add to his delight, Sulka estimated that the second lamp carried an insurance value of $45,000, which meant, together, they were worth $130,000. This put a wide smile on the guest's face, who could only say, "Great!" in response as he was still in shock.
