Freeman’s in Philadelphia hosted a single-owner sale on November 10 of Angels Representing Seven Churches: A Rediscovered Set of Windows by Tiffany Studios. The single-lot sale achieved an impressive $705,000: effortlessly doubling its pre-sale high estimate.

After competitive online and phone bidding the windows were sold to a philanthropic Philadelphian who plans to place them with a museum.

Said Head of Sale, Tim Andreadis: “We were elated to see this rare surviving set of windows achieve a world-class price, befitting both their artistic splendor and religious significance. The success of this niche sale is testament to Freeman’s ability to market one-off, unusual and high quality objects and collections."

The windows came to auction with a pre-sale estimate of $150,000-250,000. 

Commissioned in 1902 for the New Jerusalem Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, Tiffany’s Angels Representing Seven Churches is an important surviving testament to the studio’s artistry. The set of windows was saved before the demolition of the New Jerusalem Church in 1964. The glasswork spent the next four decades in storage. 

Experts Arthur Femenella and Kathy Jordan began restoration on the windows in the early 2000s. During the project, they discovered the Tiffany Studios signature on the windows. After more than a hundred years, including forty hidden from public view, the name of the windows’ important maker was rediscovered.  

For the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Tiffany Studios created a chapel interior with leaded glass windows and other embellishments. This exposure added to the studio's reputation and allowed them to take advantage of the growing demand for new church interiors in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.