A Frank Lloyd Wright Lamp sold for 7.5 Million dollars

A rare piece designed for the Dana-Thomas House in Springfield becomes the most expensive object by the American architect ever sold at auction.

Frank Lloyd Wright

The Double Pedestal Lamp, designed in 1903 by Frank Lloyd Wright for the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Illinois, was sold at auction by Sotheby’s in New York for a record-breaking 7.5 million dollars. The sale price far exceeded the initial estimate of 3–5 million, setting a new auction peak for Wright whose previous record was held by a lamp from the Francis W. Little House, which fetched 2.9 million dollars in 2023.

The Double Pedestal – of which another version is included in the permanent collection of the Dana-Thomas House Foundation – is now regarded as an icon of 20th-century design and a quintessential expression of Wright’s architectural philosophy. The lamp is, in essence, a “miniature house” that encapsulates the design principles of the Dana House for which it was created, as well as the personality and values of its original patron.

It is quite impossible to consider the building one thing and its furnishings another… they are all mere structural details of its character and completeness.

Its form is overtly architectural: a synthesis of structure and ornament, the lamp’s stacked cubic base echoes the sturdy foundations of the original Italianate house and the horizontal lines of Wright’s Prairie-style addition. The broad, sloping shade in translucent glass reflects the deep overhangs and angular rooflines of the house itself, and features a stylised sumac motif, a native prairie plant frequently referenced throughout the home's interior. The rich tones—amber, gold, and moss green—cast a warm, autumnal glow, transforming the room into a poetic landscape of light and shadow. When struck by natural light, however, the lamp undergoes a visual transformation: its surfaces shift to iridescent hues of turquoise, fuchsia, gold, and emerald, giving the object a vibrant, ever-changing quality.

This chromatic metamorphosis, combined with the kinetic element of two hinged blue-green glass panels and the atmospheric depth introduced by electric light, turns the Double Pedestal into a living object, one that interacts with its environment and exemplifies the seamless integration of structure and ornament that defines Wright’s philosophy of organic architecture.

Opening image: Frank Lloyd Wright, courtesy Los Angeles Daily News Photographic Collection, UCLA Library

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