Tiffany Drophead Dragonfly lamp the center of attraction at Heritage, April 28

DALLAS – Property from the Collection of Jeep & Carla Harned, an assemblage well known to collectors of art glass, will grab a share of the spotlight in Heritage Auctions’ Tiffany, Lalique & Art Glass Including Art Nouveau & Art Deco Signature® Auction April 28. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.

A titan of the recording industry, Grover Cleveland “Jeep” Harned founded Music Centers Incorporated in 1955 and spent more than 25 years designing and manufacturing the highest-quality audio equipment on the market. His passion for technology and innovation was evident not only in his professional endeavors but also his decades-long pursuit of art glass, which led him to galleries, estate sales and auctions across the country. Jeep and his wife Carla, who eventually settled in Durango, Colorado, amassed one of the finest collections of art glass, which is especially strong in Tiffany Studios windows and lamps and Thomas Webb & Sons cameo glass. Examples from this collection previously sold at auction have commanded high prices and cemented the Harned name as one to seek out in provenance.

“Important collections like the Harneds’ are developed over time, gradually shifting in focus and ultimately including a wide array of pieces,” said Consignment Director of Decorative Arts & Design Samantha Robinson. “The selection that we will offer on April 28 tells the story of how the collection of Jeep and Carla Harned came to be, with several key pieces represented, and offers something for every art glass collector, from emerging to the most experienced and discerning.”

The auction boasts more than 50 lots drawn from the Harned collection that demonstrate the full range and depth of their collecting sensibilities. It is led by an exceptional Tiffany Studios Drophead Dragonfly table lamp, estimated at $100,000-$150,000, which seems to drip with gold – its rich marigold shade studded with glass jewels and encircled by a swarm of descending dragonflies rises on a gilt bronze Queen Anne’s Lace base.

The selection includes Tiffany Studios, Steuben and Durand and Lotton wares, as well as a Loetz Phaenomen vase in an undocumented decor. It is estimated at $15,000-$20,000. The Thomas Webb & Son’s Nesting Birds bottle attributed to George Woodall depicts a pair of birds flanking their spherical nest in astonishing detail. It carries an estimate of $30,000-$50,000.

The Harned collection is joined by property from an important private Chicago collection of American and European art, which boasts an exceptional assortment of Tiffany Studios favrile glass. The first lot, a tall double gourd-form vase decorated with wheel-carved cameo decoration, estimated at $15,000-$20,000, hints at the quality and variety of the pieces represented. The Chicago collector’s discerning eye is not limited to Tiffany Studios but extends across the Atlantic to include Galle and Daum, pate de verre by Argy-Rousseau, Amalric Walter and Decorchemont, and the Art Deco designs of Maurice Marinot, including a museum-quality perfume bottle estimated at $40,000-$60,000.

These two important private collections are complimented by an array of fresh-to-market pieces, from Tiffany Studios lamps of every size and type to fine Greene & Greene furniture from Pasadena’s Cordelia Culbertson house to Art Deco works by Jean Dunand, Edgar Brandt and Demetre Chiparus.

The auction concludes with one of the finest selections of R. Lalique glass offered at Heritage Auctions to date, including a Matcho Gros Elephant estimated at $10,000-$15,000, a cased jade green Gros Scarabees vase estimated at $25,000-$35,000, three Perruches vases in color and also two Bacchantes vases.

 

View top auction results on LiveAuctioneers here: https://www.liveauctioneers.com/pages/recent-auction-sales/