This Lamp Just Became the Most Expensive Object Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright Ever Sold at Auction The double-pedestal light fixture brought in $7.5 million. It was designed around 1903 for the Susan Lawrence Dana House, a 12,000-square-foot residence in Springfield, Illinois The lamp features the "sumac pattern," which Wright also used elsewhere throughout the Susan Lawrence Dana House. Sotheby's American architect Frank Lloyd Wright is most famous for the hundreds of structures he designed over his seven-decade career. But in addition to sketching out buildings, Wright also created custom furnishings, many of which bear the hallmarks of his signature Prairie style. “It is quite impossible to consider the building as one thing, its furnishings another and its setting and environment still another,” he once wrote. “The spirit in which these buildings are conceived sees all these together at work as one thing.” On May 13, Sotheby’s sold one of Wright’s furniture pieces—a rare double-pedestal lamp—for a record-breaking $7.5 million. After a seven-minute bidding war, the lamp became the most expensive Wright object ever sold at auction. The lamp broke the record set by a 1902 ceiling light Wright designed for the Francis W. Little House in Peoria, Illinois, which sold for $2.9 million in 2023. The sale 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, an expert in 20th-century design at Sotheby’s, in a statement, as reported by Artnet’s Min Chen. Why This Lamp Is Worth Millions: Frank Lloyd Wright's Masterpiece Heads to Auction | Sotheby's Watch on Wright created the lamp for the Susan Lawrence Dana House, a 12,000-square-foot residence in Springfield, Illinois. Only two known examples of the lamp still exist: the one that just sold at auction, and another that remains in the house’s collection. The home was purchased by the state of Illinois in 1981 and is maintained by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources as a museum. Docents offer public tours daily. Dana was a “forward-thinking socialite” who wrote Wright a blank check to renovate her late father’s home, according to the museum’s website. In the end, he created a sprawling dwelling with 35 rooms. Wright also designed numerous items to decorate the home, including more than 100 pieces of custom furniture and more than 450 art glass windows, doors and light fixtures, according to Sotheby’s. Today, the museum boasts the largest collection of site-specific, original Wright art glass and furniture. “When Susan Lawrence Dana commissioned Wright to oversee the transformation of an existing home in Springfield, Illinois, the result was not just a building—it was a complete work of art,” Eric Rogers, a spokesperson for the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, tells Hyperallergic’s Maya Pontone in an email. One of those pieces was the double-pedestal lamp, which features colorful stained glass panes, geometric patterns and a rectilinear base. Its main motif is known as the “sumac pattern,” which appears throughout the house. Wright designed the lamp around 1903 and had it made by Linden Glass Company in Chicago around 1904, per Sotheby’s. The last time the lamp came to auction was in 2002, when it sold for $2 million. “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,” says Pollack in the statement. Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.