More than a century ago, New Jersey resident approached Tiffany Studios about a special commission...
Annie M. McClymonds wanted a magnificent stained-glass window that would honor the life’s work of her elderly uncle and aunt, John and Terressa Danner, and anchor the east wall of a new First Baptist Church in their hometown, Canton, Ohio.
When the dazzling 16-foot-high leaded stained- glass window arrived in Canton in 1913, it made front-page news, says Elle Decor. The Canton Daily News said that it was “probably the finest window in the city” and described its luminous depictions of “rugged fruit-laden apple trees” and “picturesque brook” - all “emblematical of age and fruitfulness unifying the works of Mr. and Mrs. Danner during their half-century as members of the church.”
An inscription at the bottom of the window quoted the book of Matthew: “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”
Later this month, the Danner Memorial Window is set to yield fruit of a different kind. As the crown jewel in Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction on 18 November, the glowing Tiffany masterwork is expected to fetch anywhere between $5 million and $7 million - potentially the highest price ever commanded by a Tiffany Studios work at auction.
“The window has so many hallmarks that really make it a masterpiece,” says Sotheby's Jodi Pollack. “It has impressive scale and grandeur when you’re standing in front of it; the composition is incredibly elaborate and complex; and the glass selection and the artistry that went into making it are really supreme.” Adding: “There has been nothing up on the market in terms of windows of this caliber, scale, complexity, artistry,” Pollack says.
Sotheby's calls the Danner window the "most significant and valuable Tiffany Studios work ever offered at auction” and says it’s comparable to famous counterparts like the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Autumn Landscape Window and the Hartwell Memorial Window at the Art Institute of Chicago, reports Forbes.
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