Earning pride of place at $241,300 was this 22½-inch-high Tiffany Studios jeweled Dragonfly table lamp with a rare Cattail Pond Lily base ($150/200,000).

Review by Madelia Hickman Ring

LAMBERTVILLE, N.J. — With 96 percent of the 131 lots offered in Rago Auctions’ July 24 Art Nouveau/Art Deco Glass & Lighting auction selling, the firm realized a cumulative $1,113,349, a result that exceeded expectations by 45 percent.

“I’m very happy with the results,” confirmed Mike Fredericks, Rago’s senior specialist in early Twentieth Century design. “For a summer auction it was very strong. Things of very high quality continue to do very well and we had a good mix of both trade and private buyers, as well as new buyers in every category of the market.”

The auction could have been a connoisseurship study in Tiffany Studios, with a broad spectrum of forms and media from the iconic firm represented in nearly 50 lots. Bringing $241,300 and beating its $150/200,000 estimates was a jeweled Dragonfly table lamp, circa 1900, that was characterized as “exceptional” and paired with a “rare” patinated bronze Cattail Pond Lily base. Consigned by an important Midwest collector, catalog notes documented its provenance as Plantation Galleries, Davison, Mich. It was purchased by a private collector in New England.

This Tiffany Studios memorial window for the R. A. Long family was well documented and sold to a West Coast buyer for $120,650 ($90/120,000).

Plantation Galleries was also noted to be among the provenance of a 6-foot-tall memorial window Tiffany Studios made for the R. A. Long family around 1929. According to catalog notes, the window was referenced in The List of Tiffany Windows studio catalog and illustrated in the January 19, 1930, issue of The Kansas City Star; additionally, its design is in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Estimated at $90/120,000, it sold slightly better, for $120,650, to a buyer on the West Coast.

The same important collector who consigned the Dragonfly lamp and Long family window had also acquired from Plantation Galleries a Tiffany Studios Marsh Marigold jardinière in acid-etched gilt bronze and copper. Interest helped it double its high estimate and it sold for $17,780. A private collector in upstate New York had the highest bid.

Quadrupling its top estimate to achieve a $165,100 result, a Tiffany Studios Dogwood chandelier shade, circa 1910, secured a strong second-place finish. Its model was documented in the 2019 new edition of Alastair Duncan’s Tiffany Lamps and Metalware (ACC Art Books) and it came to auction from another private collector.

Leading the selection of works by makers other than Tiffany Studios was this Zsolnay eosin-glazed earthenware vase with dragons that topped off at $63,500 ($9/12,000).

“Monumental” described a 19½-inch-tall Zsolnay eosin-glazed earthenware vase that was decorated with dragons. Made circa 1900, it multiplied its high estimate by more than five-fold, gaveling down for $63,500.

Another rarity that did better than estimated — and achieved $27,940 — was a 20-inch-diameter molded glass, chrome-plated metal and rope Passiflore chandelier, made in France by René Lalique. Though it was consigned to auction from a private collector in Colorado, it had been handled previously by two New York City galleries: DeLorenzo Gallery and Richard Lee Interior Design.

The auction’s assortment of works by Loetz was 22 lots strong and reached its apex at $15,240, a price that was realized by two Phänomen vases from the Jory collection in Colorado; one of the vases had been designed by Franz Hofstötter for the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle.

Rago will sell American & European Art Pottery on September 11, Modern Design on September 19 and Contemporary Glass on September 19. The next Art Nouveau/Art Deco Lighting & Glass sale is expected to take place in November.

Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For additional information, www.ragoarts.com or 609-397-9374.