GUEST: I was taking a walk in the morning, and I got about four houses down from where I live, and there was a sign that said "free." And so I walked by it the first day, and then the second day, I thought about it again, and I thought, "Well, I'll take this, "and it's pretty ugly, but I can give it to somebody, but it's a lamp, so I'll just take it." So, when I brought it home, I ran over to my neighbor and asked him if he could cut the cord off and fix it. He said the plug alone is really old, and that I should wait and find out about the lamp before I cut it off. He could always cut it off if I wanted to, but I should wait and find out about it before I do.
APPRAISER: Okay, so, I'm going to tell you about your lamp. It is a Louis Comfort Tiffany lamp. It's actually made by Louis C. Tiffany Furnaces, Inc., which is one of the names of Louis Comfort Tiffany's companies. He had several names starting in the late 1870s, going into the early 1930s. This is the next-to-last name of the company. So, this would date from 1920 to about 1928.
GUEST: Oh, my God.
APPRAISER: And you have a gilded-bronze base with the enamel design around the foot, and then what we call a damascene blown-glass shade with wonderful iridescence on the outside. These came in several different colors, and there's sort of a hierarchy of value in the colors. This one is the caramel color. Something like this is very desirable because it's intact, and the shade is one of the better colors. This comes off.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And then... here.
GUEST: Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah!
APPRAISER: It says "L.C.T. Favrile."
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And fav, favrile meant, to Tiffany, it was his trademark word for handmade. This is first, and then see...
GUEST: Oh, yeah, second.
APPRAISER: ...this covers it, which is nice, 'cause that covers the edge. In a retail venue, something like this could sell for between $10,000 and $15,000.
GUEST: (gasping) Oh, my God.
APPRAISER: You definitely want to get it rewired, because there's absolutely no value in original wiring.
GUEST: Okay.
APPRAISER: And please, don't ever transport it in one, in one piece with the shade on, like you did, because the bulk of the value is in this shade.
GUEST: (sniffles)
APPRAISER: And if you broke the shade, the base would be worth about $500 to $1,000. So the shade is very important.
