Rare Tiffany ‘Poppy’ Lamps Sells for $541,200

DENVER, Penn. – A rare circa 1905-1910 Tiffany Studios “Poppy” leaded-glass table lamp sold for $541,200 (including a 23% buyer’s premium) during a Fine & Decorative Arts event in June at Morphy Auctions, which the house believes is a world-record auction price for a Tiffany lamp in the Poppy motif.

“We’ve sold other Poppy lamps in the $70,000-$125,000 range, but this one was in a league of its own,” said Dan Morphy, founder and president of Morphy Auctions. “Only Tiffany’s most highly skilled artisans could have produced a shade of this standard. It’s a complex masterpiece, unlike any other we’ve ever seen. The design would have been laid out piece by carefully chosen piece, with the addition of intense cobalt blue glass that’s rarely seen in art-glass lamps.

“It’s surely one of the greatest artworks ever to come out of Tiffany’s studios,” Morphy said. The lamp was sourced from a longtime Florida collection and is now the property of an American private collector who wishes to remain anonymous.