A Frank Lloyd Wright lamp designed for the Dana-Thomas house in Springfield, Illinois, just set a new record for the architect, 66 years after his death. Sold for $7.5 million at Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction, it’s the most expensive object by Wright ever sold at auction. “This record-breaking sale celebrates not only a remarkable piece of American design, but a landmark moment in the legacy of one of the most visionary architects in history,” Jodi Pollack, Sotheby’s chairman and co-worldwide head of 20th-century design, said in a statement.
History of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Double Pedestal Lamp
Wright designed the piece, known as the Double Pedestal Lamp, in 1904 for Susan Lawrence Dana, a progressive socialite from Springfield. Dana had commissioned a home (now known as the Dana-Thomas house), and Wright, who saw no delineation between decoration and architecture, designed more than 100 pieces of furniture for the project, including two Double Pedestal lamps. While one is still in the Dana-Thomas house, which is now a house museum, the second has been in private collections.
Featuring a rectangular base, two thin rectangular pedestals, and a glass shade similar in shape to a hip roof, the lamp showcases Wright’s famed art glass in a unique context. “When illuminated, it casts a warm, autumnal glow that transforms the room into a poetic interplay of light and form,” the auction catalog reads. “In reflected daylight, these same panels utterly transform, unveiling a luminous, effervescent iridescence…. This visual oscillation from autumnal to iridized grants the lamp a dual identity: simultaneously an integrated element of its architectural space and one that uniquely transforms around each viewer’s vantage point.”
According to Sotheby’s, the lamp was “pursued by a determined group of bidders in a spirited, nearly 11-minute battle.” Closing at $7.5 million, it sold for well over the estimate, which was set between $3 million and $5 million. The sale marks a new auction record for Wright, which had previously been set by Wright’s Francis W. Little House Ceiling Light, which sold at Sotheby’s for $2.9 million in 2023.
The future of design objects in auctions
The lamp’s price is significant, selling for more than some of Wright’s residences. An early Wright home sold for $449,000 in March of this year, while the architect’s Circular Sun House, one of his largest designs, is currently for sale for $8.95 million. According to Sotheby’s, design objects are becoming increasingly more popular among contemporary art collectors.