Early 20th-Century Duffner & Kimberly Lamp
Appraised Value:
$25,000 - $35,000
IMAGE: 1 of 1
Appraisal Video: (1:41)
Appraisal Transcript:
GUEST: Originally my great-aunt would have bought it probably around 1920-- I'm not sure. And in about 1973, my aunt gave it to me when I moved to Boston.
APPRAISER: Do you keep it on display in your house?
GUEST: Uh, yes, actually I do; we use it.
APPRAISER: This lamp is by a company called Duffner and Kimberly, and they were a company that produced out of New York from 1905 until about 1913-- so, for a very short period of time. And they were a contemporary of Louis Comfort Tiffany's. And a lot of people, when they see these kinds of lamps, just because of the great variety of color, they automatically assume that it's Tiffany. But it's not. You mentioned that this came from Chicago.
GUEST: Yes.
APPRAISER: And these lamps by Duffner and Kimberly were sold by the Chicago Electric Lamp Company. I noticed that it had a few issues. I could see in certain places that there was a little bit of repair.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And when I was looking on the underside, I noticed there was a couple of pieces of glass that had some color change, which told me they had been replaced. So there had been some damage at one point, and perhaps your aunt had somebody restore it. But it's okay, it's still beautiful. The base on it I believe is original but it has definitely been stripped-- the patina is no longer original. It probably was cleaned. Maybe it had oxidized and somebody polished it down, thinking that they were going to take away the oxidation and just, unfortunately, stripped away the top layer. So, when we think about the condition and we think about the rarity of the piece, if it was to come up for sale, I would tell you this lamp would probably sell for $25,000 to $30,000.
GUEST: Thank you! Oh, wow, that's big news.
