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Tiffany Studios lamps go beyond the realm of decorative art into fine art, and collectors are drawn to their modern aesthetic design. With balanced, vibrant colors, crisp casting, thin and elegant lead lines mixed with thicker curved ones, and multihued patinas, the forms and decoration are as modern today as they were when Louis Comfort Tiffany and his staff of designers, many of them women, created them over 100 years ago.

“The Warshawsky Collection: Masterworks of Tiffany and Prewar Design,” offered by Sotheby’s on May 19, attracted in the salesroom a crowd of 60 collectors and dealers who knew one another intimately. “I hope we’re not bidding against each other,” said one dealer to another, “but I wish you luck.” It goes without saying that that’s precisely what happened.

Bidding was vigorous in the room and on the phones, and the sale with 138 lots totaled $7.95 million, with 98.6% of lots sold. The top lot, an Oriental Poppy floor lamp, sold to dealer Sandra van den Broek for $1,066,000 (includes buyer’s premium), a world auction record for the model.

“It was fantastic,” said a longtime private collector when he was asked what he thought of the lamp. “It was a ten!”

More than three-fourths of the lots exceeded their presale high estimates. Only two lots were passed—a “rare” pebble table lamp and an “elaborate Peony” table lamp—both of which were “aggressively estimated,” said the private collector, who added, “Overall, the estimates were conservative and realistic. She [head of sale Jodi Pollack] did a very good job.”

“We saw intense competition at all price points from established American collectors as well as international clients new to Sotheby’s and new to our field, with multiples of the sale’s top works purchased by Asian collectors,” said Pollack, head of Sotheby’s 20th-century design department. Asian collectors were active in Sotheby’s design sale in December 2014 as well.

This sale was divided into four sections: masterworks of Tiffany Studios, American Arts and Crafts, the Liberty Style, and Art Nouveau. The hefty catalog was filled with testimony to the insatiable collecting passion of Roy Warshawsky, who collected from the late 1960s until he died at age 81 in 1997. He ran his family’s mail-order car parts company in Chicago and traveled extensively. The Warshawsky daughters wrote loving tributes to their parents for the catalog, and countless family photographs appeared, many of them in Tiffany and Liberty silver frames that sold well.

“A slew of new buyers spent extraordinary amounts of money for smaller things [such as frames],” said dealer Sandra van den Broek. “They are wonderful objects that were bought forty to fifty years ago and haven’t been on the market,” she explained, adding that she knew Roy Warshawsky since she is from Chicago. “He was well regarded and a wonderful man. I bought the best lamp [at the sale],” she said, noting that a Nasturtium hanging lamp and a 20" Poppy lamp, which usually bring over $100,000, were bought at “reasonable” prices of $81,250 and $75,000.

“There was depth and strength in the sale, except for the lamps,” said a longtime private collector. “There’s a Wisteria in every sale. Unique things, like the Oriental Poppy floor lamp, did well,” he pointed out.

A symposium held at Macklowe Gallery in New York City a few days before this sale gave 50 collectors the opportunity to expand their knowledge about the world of Tiffany Studios. Ben Macklowe spoke about current trends, values, and authenticity in the market; Margaret Hofer, curator of decorative arts at the New-York Historical Society (N-YHS), gave a detailed account of Clara Driscoll and the “Tiffany Girls,” designers in “the women’s department” at Tiffany Studios; and John Loring, design director emeritus at Tiffany & Co., spoke about the jewelry designs of Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The N-YHS is opening a new 3000-square-foot gallery in December 2016 to showcase 100 Tiffany lamps, many from the collection of Dr. and Mrs. Egon Neustadt, said Hofer. “The gallery will be interactive,” she explained. Macklowe offered to donate 10% of any sales made during the afternoon symposium to the new N-YHS gallery.