Tiffany "Dragonfly" table lamp sold for $554,500. Image: Sotheby's

By Mackie Healy, Art Market Views contributor

A circa 1898-1905 Tiffany’s ‘Dragonfly’ table lamp by Clara Driscoll fetched $554,500 today at Sotheby’s in New York, exceeding the $300,000-$500,000 presale estimate. The work was the sale’s top lot.

The lamp, made of leaded glass and patinated bronze and adorned with dragonflies in shades of blue and green, was snatched up by an anonymous phone bidder. The bidder also acquired four other Tiffany fixtures in the sale. The lamp’s design spearheaded a new genre of matched shade-and-base design in the Tiffany’s product line, according to Sotheby’s catalog.

Another ‘Dragonfly’ table lamp, circa 1905, sold at Christie’s New York in December 2009, for $602,500.

The lamp was among 76 lots sold today for $5,121,813. The sale was projected to total $4.3 to $6.4 million. 67 percent of items offered found buyers.

A 1925 three-panel gilt wood screen by Armand-Albert Rateau failed to sell. It was estimated to go for $400,000-$600,000, but the auctioneer was unable to find a single bidder after opening bids at $250,000. A 1926 Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann ‘Cla-Cla’ Reading Desk also did not receive any bids, failing to reach the presale estimate of $100,000-$150,000.

Here are the remaining top nine lots (prices include the buyer’s premium):

2. Lot # 3, Tiffany Studios, A Fine “Peony Border” Floor Lamp, ca. 1905 - $530,500

3.  Lot # 1, Tiffany Studios, A Superb “Poinsettia” Table Lamp, ca. 1910 – $458,500

4. Lot # 6, Tiffany Studios, A Fine “Wisteria” Table Lamp, ca. 1905 – $326,500

5. Lot # 2, Tiffany Studios, A Superb “Poppy” Table Lamp, ca. 1905 – $302,500

6. Lot # 7, Tiffany Studios, “Peacock Feather” Table Lamp, ca. 1905 – $182,500

7. Lot # 95, Serge Mouille, An Important and Rare “Table Vrillée,” ca. 1962 – $158,500

Lot # 35, George Grant Elmslie and William Gray Purcell, An Important Clerestory Window from the Madison State Bank, Madison, Minnesota, ca. 1913 – $158,500

8. Lot #8 Tiffany Studios,  “Grape Trellis” Window from “Overcliff,” Park Hill, New York, ca. 1895-1905 -    $146,500

9.  Lot #10, Tiffany Studios, “Lilly Pad” Table Lamp, ca. 1905 – $122,500

Lot #32, Gustav Stickley, An Important and Unique Four-Panel Scree, ca. 1902 - $122,500

10. Lot # 16, Tiffany Studios, A Fine Eighteen-Light “Lilly” Table Lamp, ca. 1910 – $98,500

Lot # 48, Paul Frankl, “Speed” Chair and Ottoman, ca. 1936 – $98,500