PITTSFIELD, Mass. – A Tiffany Studios Moorish-style hall lantern, 34 inches tall and with an excellent original overall gilt finish, lit up the room when it finished at $133,100 at a cataloged auction held Feb. 28th by Fontaine’s Auction Gallery, in the firm’s gallery located at 1485 West Housatonic Street in Pittsfield. The hall lantern was the top lot in a sale that grossed $1.1 million.

Coming into the auction with a pre-sale estimate of $20,000-$30,000, the unsigned hall lantern had a tapered cylindrical form, a fiery amber, gold and opaque glass geometric fish scale body, a 12-point feathered crown, a domical top and lower door, and a border of 25 amber jeweled cabochons (12 on the crown, 9 on the dome above the crown). It easily blew past its estimate.

Actually, many of the sale’s 400 lots sailed past their estimates, as bidders eagerly fought over Tiffany Studios floor lamps, hanging lamps, table lamps and pendants; Tiffany Favrile glass vases and cabinet pieces; lamps by Duffner & Kimberly, Handel and Pairpoint; art glass shades; and bronze creations by artists like Harriet Frishmuth, Stanislas Grimaldi and Vassili Grachev.

Bidding was moderate in the gallery, but that was more than offset by the many phone and left (absentee) bids that were recorded and the massive number of internet bidders who logged on to participate via LiveAuctioneers.com, Invaluable.com, Auctionzip.com and the Fontaine’s website – www.FontainesAuction.com. All in all, it was a hugely successful auction.

“When you have high-quality, fresh-to-the-market material to sell, customers will come in droves to bid on these items, and that's what we had with this auction,” said John Fontaine of Fontaine's Auction Gallery. “Between in-house bidders, phone bidders and the internet, we had over 3,000 registered bidders. That's the most we've ever had for a sale in our 45-year history.”
Following are additional highlights of the auction. All prices quoted include a 21 percent buyer’s premium.

Nearly everything from Tiffany Studios proved irresistible to bidders. A Tiffany Parasol table lamp with a large, 24-inch saucer-shaped shade having a 12-row geometric pattern in dark mottled green glass soared to $48,400; while a Tiffany Tulip table lamp with domical shade having a background with wonderful blue translucent hammered textured glass hit $39,325.

A double-signed Tiffany drop-head Dragonfly floor lamp, 64 inches tall and having a 22-inch domical shade with an opaque and yellow mottled background with amber glass jeweled glass cabochon highlights with damage finished at $66,550; and a Tiffany bronze counterbalance desk lamp with a trumpeted artichoke-style base and signed “L.C.T.” on the base, made $29,040.

A signed Tiffany & Co. 18 kt yellow gold, diamond and gemstone bracelet, 7 ¼ inches long, with 21 bezel set large carved green gemstone center mounts bordered by over 400 pave set diamonds, reached $38,720; while a large, 13-inch Tiffany Favrile iridescent art glass globe in the King Tut pattern changed hands for $16,940.

A Tiffany turtleback bronze hanging hall lantern with a rectangular form and a pyramid top, pierced decorated with three coils in each top panel and the original ceiling canopy, 24 inches tall, used as an outside porch light, breezed to $30,250; and a set of four Tiffany figural bronze wall sconces, rare and unusual, with an inverted figural dolphin holding a scallop shell in its mouth commanded $29,040.

Two bronze creations from Harriet Whitney Frishmuth (Conn./N.Y., 1880-1980), one titled Reflections (16 inches tall) and the other The Star (19 inches tall) hammered for $19,360 and $15,730, respectively. The former, signed and dated (1930) was a bronze nude figure of a woman, standing on a round plinth, with daffodils. The latter was also a figural nude bronze.

A bronze grouping signed by Vassili Grachev (Russian Federation, 1831-1905), 20 inches long, a snow-covered scene of a troika drawn by a team of horses passing a peasant in a sled riding in the opposite direction, fetched $12,705; and a 19th century bronze sculpture of a man riding in a horse-drawn, two-wheel carriage, by Stanislas Grimaldi, titled Tilbury (1886), brought $14,520.

The star lot of the furniture category was a monumental walnut marble-top partner’s desk and chair that ended up bringing $21,780. The desk had a black marble top inset with a gadrooned and leaf-carved walnut top border. The sides of the desk had large, full-standing female figures leaning forward. The carved walnut chair had bowed arms and legs with large standing maidens.

Fontaine’s Auction Gallery’s upcoming auctions will be a Cataloged Antique Auction on Saturday March 28th followed by a Cataloged Discovery Auction slated for Saturday, April 25th, also in the Pittsfield gallery. Then, on Saturday, May 30th, also in Pittsfield, a major auction will be held, featuring hundreds of quality, fresh-to-the-market lots in many categories: clocks, watches, advertising items, lamps, bronzes, furniture and more. Watch the website for details.

With over 40 years in the auction business, Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is a name that has earned the trust of collectors, investors and gallery owners around the world. All cataloged lots receive nationwide exposure to the firm’s expansive database of more than 18,000 select buyers. Seven times Fontaine’s Auction Gallery has been voted “Best Antique Auction Gallery” by the public.

Fontaine’s Auction Gallery is actively seeking quality items, to include furniture, lighting, clocks and watches, paintings, porcelains, bronze and marble statuary, Asian items, art glass and cameo glass, Russian objects, silver, musical, coin-op, advertising, toys, banks, gaming and carousel items for future sales. Consignments are currently being accepted for all upcoming auctions.

The firm will buy outright or accept on consignment fine antiques, collections or entire estates. Call (413) 448-8922 and ask to speak with John Fontaine, or you can send Mr. Fontaine an e-mail to info@fontainesauction.com. For more information about the company and the upcoming April and May auctions, please visit www.FontainesAuction.com. Updates are posted frequently.

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