Someone is the proud owner of a $7.5 million lamp.
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Double-Pedestal Lamp for the Susan Lawrence Dana House ignited a fierce bidding war at Sotheby’s recent Modern Evening Auction. In what a press release describes as an “11-minute battle”—one imagines paddles fluttering and stabbing the air in rapid succession—the sale set a new auction record for a FLW-designed item. The lamp sold for nearly four times the price it commanded when it was on the block in 2002.
The previous record was set in 2023 with the Francis W. Little House Ceiling Light, which sold for $2.9 million as part of the Wolf Family Collection. The Dana House lamp now stands as one of the most important examples of Wright’s visionary design ever sold.
“This record-breaking sale of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Double-Pedestal Lamp 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,” says Jodi Pollack, Sotheby’s Chairman and Co-Worldwide Head of 20th Century Design. “A true testament to his genius, the lamp stands as a beacon of the American pursuit of design, innovation, and progress that reflects Wright’s lasting influence on American architecture and culture.”
There is one other Double-Pedestal Lamp of Wright’s, but it’s not for sale. It remains in the permanent collection of the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, Ill., secured in 1988 with the support of Illinois Governor Jim Thompson and the Dana-Thomas House Foundation.
