Question about Stiffel lamps I found at a garage sale

My wife and I were at a garage sale today and found some Stiffel lamps.

We paid $12 apiece. The old couple said they wanted them gone because they were tired of looking at them.

 

I know that the pic of the 2nd and 3rd are Ostritch from 1950, and I've seen them FOR A PAIR online for $2700.

Does it have to be in a PAIR for them to be worth a lot of money?

I KNOW NOTHING about antiques...

 

The highest pair of that type on ebay sold for $300.

$50 to $100 for singles is more likely.

Pairs are usually worth more than double of two singles.

 

Welcome!
And very nice items and nice large photos too!

 

Just remember "asking" and actually "selling" is usually quite different. Especially if you look things up on these auction based internet selling pages. Ebay will give you a better idea of what items are selling for.

 

Quite a haul! I think pairs usually do better than singles for that type of lamp, but maybe that's just a personal preference.

Selling them through your B&M (if you have one), Craigslist or local consignment might be easiest and offer the best return. Packing lamps is a pain and postage sucks away a lot of profit. Offering them with shades makes a difference as well. Frequently good shades are more difficult to find than lamps (or so it seems to me).

I really like that ostrich pattern.

 

Stiffel lamps are generally good quality and have a following. It is somewhat selective. I have never had any luck with them in my market but, obviously, others do. There is no way I could sell those ostrich egg lamps for $300.00, much less $2700.00.

 

The old couple said they wanted them gone because they were tired of looking at them.

Kramer, I have four Stiffel lamps in my attic right now for that very same reason - I got sick of looking at them!

As Brad has said, Stiffel lamps are generally nicely made, and I'm not yet ready to get rid of mine, but I AM tired of them! (I have two from the 1970's and two from the 1980's.)

-C-

 

Thanks guys.

Even if we make a few hundred dollars, it's neat that we're only out $60.

But now I'm very interested in how this stuff works. I've been reading up on lamps. I'd never personally been interested in antiques...

I did find the lamp in pictures 8 and 9. It's worth about a $100 so it seems. The others I cannot find. If any of you find the others, that would be a huge help.

My son and I, the more we see the Ostrich lamp lit, the more we really think it's cool. It has a very 1950's Vegas feel to it. We have four shades that we think are silk. It's a very dim, cool look when it's on.

 

PS: We're finding that most of the lamp SHADES that we have are going for about $60 to $80 on EBAY alone.

 

I can't find this one ANYWHERE.

 

Hi,
I used to buy Stiffel lamps back in the early 60s, they were expensive then. They were extremely well made. My ex sold them for 5 bucks each after the divorce. Over the years I bought and sold many of them. The Stiffle estate had a huge yard sale in Paterson NJ. I bought 12 or 15 lamps from the estate which were almost one of a kind. I paid 100 bucks each and they sold from 450 to 1 thousand each. I still have 4 or 5 in the closet. The market has gone down on them and I see them listed for several hundred but most sell in the 25 to 30 dollars. The newer ones made in Chicago instead of NJ are still expensive but no were near the quality of the older ones. The older ones are solid brass and heavy, the newer ones has some plated brass and plastic. You have a wonderful set of lamps there.
greg

 

I believe that you need to post more pictures.

 

Why?

 

Assuming you are asking Fenton about Greg's comment....
I suspect Fenton wants to see his lamps.
Now since neither of the comments are actually a reply to Greg directly on his post this is conjecture on my part.

 

I would LOVE to see pics of your stuff!