The top lot of the auction at $500,000 was this monumental and important Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company Moorish chandelier, circa 1892, that is going into a private home in Virginia.
Review by Andrea Valluzzo
PITTSFIELD, MASS. — Fontaine’s Auction Gallery realized a total of $4.6 million from its Fine and Decorative Arts Auction on February 7, driven by a wealth of fine examples from Tiffany Studios, mostly lighting, with Tiffany lots as a category accounting for $3 million of the sale results. More than 9,500 bidders registered for the sale, representing 67 countries.
“It was amazing,” said owner and auctioneer John Fontaine. “What was really nice is we always expect the upper end stuff to do well but the mid-range stuff also did well and overperformed.”
Selling at high estimate, the top lot of the auction was a circa 1892 Tiffany Glass & Decorating Company Moorish chandelier that was one of the earliest surviving examples of Tiffany’s use of leaded glass panels that enclose a light source. Commissioned from Tiffany’s by the First Presbyterian Church in Buffalo, N.Y., the chandelier was monumental, having a 72-inch drop, and will now hang in a private home in Virginia.
Tiffany Studios table lamps in desirable patterns always perform well at Fontaine’s. Surprisingly, this category was not led this time by a floral example but with a circa 1910 Russian with a Faux Turtle-Back base that attained $125,000. “It was a very nice example in great condition and did very well,” Fontaine said, noting it came out of a home in Long Island, so it had been off the market since the 1980s.
Leading a choice selection of Tiffany Studios table lamps was this circa 1910 Russian with a Faux Turtle-Back base that attained $125,000.
Nature- and floral-inspired table lamps by Tiffany did cross the block and were among the sales’s top performers, including a circa 1910 Lotus that sold for $118,750, a circa 1910 Drophead Dragonfly at $107,550, a Jonquil-Daffodil at $81,250 and a Peony table lamp at $75,000.
A set of four Tiffany Studios wall sconces, circa 1910, looked nice but unassuming and were conservatively estimated at $12/16,000. Pairs and sets of items seem to hold much appeal for buyers, and this quartet lit up the block at $62,500. Also bringing strong prices were two rare Turtle-Back lanterns, circa 1910, that each realized $59,500.
A non-lighting Tiffany lot that seriously outperformed its $10/15,000 estimate was a 205-piece set of sterling silver flatware in the Persian pattern ($34,375).
While Tiffany wares dominated the auction, an outlier among the sale’s “top ten” was a circa 1903 Émile Gallé (1846-1904) Art Nouveau marquetry sideboard, the Épis De Blé, which soared over its $10/15,000 estimate to bring $75,000. A related example can be found in the permanent collection of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.
This Émile Gallé (1846-1904) Épis De Blé Art Nouveau marquetry sideboard earned $75,000, going well over its $10/15,000 estimate.
Rounding out the auction were fine art standouts in a variety of forms. A Salvador Dalí pen-and-ink drawing, “Horse & Rider,” finished at $18,750 ($6/8,000) while Evgeny Lanceray’s patinated bronze sculpture “Crossing of the Balkans,” dated 1877, sold within estimate at $37,500. A Harry Bertoia “Small Wheat” stainless steel sculpture, circa 1968, brought $27,500 and will be included in the Harry Bertoia catalogue raisonné.
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. Fontaine’s next sale will be The Collector’s Auction on March 21.
For more information, www.fontainesauction.com or 413-402-6654.
