GUEST
These white lamps I saw at a thrift store over 15 years ago. I wasn't really looking for lamps. I thought they were cool and they're glass. It wasn't until I moved into my recent place where somebody pointed out that, hey, they actually may be legitimately old and worth something, and it made me curious ever since.
APPRAISER
So what did you pay for them?
GUEST
Probably no more than nine dollars each.
APPRAISER
What part of the country were you when you got them?
GUEST
Uh, back in the Atlanta area. I'd go to thrift stores all the time just to explore and treasure-hunt. But I don't really collect anything particular, and these just stuck out.
APPRAISER
Who do you think made them?
GUEST
I don't know, there's no sticker, there's no mark. There's nothing I could find.
APPRAISER
They're designed by Lisa Johansson-Pape. She was Finnish.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
She was born in 1907. She was a pretty great designer, um, in terms of, uh, decorative arts, but particularly lighting. It's funny, because I spoke to a colleague of mine here at the ROADSHOW who is a specialist in the period in which these were made. And he said in the 1980s...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
...these were the modern lamps that people were looking at.
GUEST
Wow.
APPRAISER
It was just sort of, they were kind of a signature thing.
GUEST
Yeah.
APPRAISER
She was trained, um, at the art, one of the art schools in Helsinki. She actually made lamps, glass lamps, during World War II.
GUEST
Hm.
APPRAISER
And then in the 1950s, she started to collaborate with a very famous company called Iittala, which is still in existence today. It's a Finnish company. And as best as I can figure, she probably designed these in about 1954.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And then I think that they were produced as late as 1969. I'd say a circa date of 1960. They came in two sizes.
GUEST
Okay.
APPRAISER
And yours is the larger size!
GUEST
(laughs)
APPRAISER
They're in very good shape. It's, you know, it's a, an opaque glass.
GUEST
Are these a specific shape for the design?
APPRAISER
I think that you could probably call them a mushroom. She did other things. There's another, there's a Finnish word for onion. She definitely liked, um, a stylized, streamlined fruit and vegetable inspiration.
These probably did have paper labels on the bottom.
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
And they probably said "Iittala." Because they're the larger size...
GUEST
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER
..in a retail venue, these would sell for between anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000.
GUEST
Wow. For the pair or each?
APPRAISER
For the pair.
GUEST
Pair? Wow. Wow! (laughing): That's a great $20 investment.
APPRAISER
Fantastic. Fantastic.
GUEST
(laughing)
APPRAISER
And, you know, they're so, the design is so interesting...
GUEST
Yeah.
APPRAISER
...that I think already, even in the '80s, they were being copied or they were inspiring other designs.
GUEST
Yeah. Wow. Wow, that's... Great eye.
Great eye from a very good friend.
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