Van Briggle Lamps: Identification, Butterfly Shades & Value

Three different things get sold as a “Van Briggle lamp,” and they are worth very different amounts. A handful of art lamps with hand-worked brass shades came out of the pottery between 1903 and about 1909. Far more common are the mid-century lamp bases the factory cast for the purpose, many of them figural and sold with shades made of real butterflies and flowers pressed in plastic. The third group is vases that someone fitted with a cap and a socket after they left the pottery.

Most lamps on the market today are the mid-century kind, and most sell for under $200 at auction. Telling the three apart takes a look at the holes, the marks, and the shade.

Brass-Shade Art Lamps (1903–about 1909)

In the pottery’s first years, a few of Artus Van Briggle’s vases were made into lamps with patinated brass shades, punched and cut out to echo the patterns on the pots beneath them. Japanese metalworkers made the shades. The Kirkland Museum in Denver, now part of the Denver Art Museum, holds one built on the Poppies vase (design 143, inscribed 1903) and credits the shade to S. Riosetts Fujiura; it records 12 such lamps made between 1903 and 1909. The collector site vanbrigglenotes.com shows a second example on design 150 in a private collection and says lamps like these were shown at the 1904 World’s Fair in St. Louis. Our Ephemera page has an archive photo of a group of them.

These are museum pieces. No public sale of one turns up in recent auction records, so we don’t give a value for them here.

Factory Lamp Bases (1920s–1970s)

The pottery cast lamp bases as a regular product. A 1967 letter from the Van Briggle files, quoted on vanbrigglenotes.com, says the three-face Indian Head was modeled by Ambrose Schlegel in 1927 “for the purpose of a lamp base” and sold that way until about 1939. The Colorado Springs Pioneers Museum holds a plain turquoise lamp base from about 1935, engraved “Van Briggle, Colo. Spgs.”

From the 1940s through the 1960s the figural lamps took over. Forms documented in museum records and auction catalogs include:

• Figural women, sold under names such as the Damsel of Damascus (1940s, mulberry and green, about 13 inches of pottery), Rebecca at the Well (a woman filling a jug, 31 inches overall with shade), the Lady of the Calla Lily, a kneeling woman with an urn, and the Daydreamer (1948, by Nellie Walker, shown in Persian Rose).
• Animals and birds: an upright squirrel cast from the same molds as the bookends (Pioneers Museum, dated 1946–1950), a panther beneath a tree, swans in blue or white, a turquoise parakeet, two leaping deer, and a bird perched on a tree trunk.
• Butterfly lamps in Moonglo, enlarged from the design 688 butterfly bowl and made in the 1940s to 1960s. A matched pair is hard to find.
• Plainer bases: spherical, ribbed, and grape-and-vine forms, mostly in matte turquoise, plus small boudoir and vanity lamps.

A dragon lamp, factory drilled and glazed, is known from a few examples; a former Van Briggle potter who worked there from 1947 to 1988 placed it in the mid-century. Horse lamps are sold as Van Briggle, but we have not found one in a catalog or museum record, so treat that attribution with care until you have seen the marks.

Butterfly Shades

The original shades on mid-century lamps are panels of plastic with real butterflies, flowers, grasses, or milkweed seed pressed inside, stitched together with plastic cane. The Pioneers Museum squirrel lamp still has its pink-and-clear panel shade. Small clip-on versions, 6 to 7½ inches tall, were made for boudoir lamps. We have not found a record of who made the shades, the pottery or an outside supplier.

After 60 or more years, most of these shades have yellowed, buckled, split at the seams, or lost butterfly wings. An original shade in good condition adds to a lamp’s value; a damaged one still tells you the lamp is probably original.

Other Van Briggle Lighting

The pottery also made candleholders, wall sconces, a hooded electric light, and an owl night light in the teens era. Photos and notes are in the Lighting section of our Novelties guide, and candle forms have their own candle holder guide.

This is the first question to answer, because it decides which market the piece belongs in.

• Factory lamp base: the opening for the lamp pipe and the hole for the cord were formed in the clay before firing and are glazed over. Figurals often have the holes built into the sculpture, such as the squirrel lamp’s openings at the base and at the tip of the tail.
• Converted vase: a cap fitted over the mouth, with the cord running through the cap and an undrilled bottom. If a hole was drilled later, its edge usually cuts cleanly through the glaze and shows raw clay.
• Early dated pieces: a vase with a 1902–1912 date or early design number that is now a lamp was almost always converted after it left the pottery. The brass-shade lamps above are the exception. A 1903 vase catalogued as a “vase / lamp base” sold at Toomey & Co. in 2024 for $2,520, priced as early art pottery, not as a lamp.

Marks on Lamps

Lamps carry the same marks as other Van Briggle ware: the AA monogram, “Van Briggle,” and often “Colo. Spgs.” On figural lamps, look on the back or side of the base near the cord hole as well as underneath, because the mark is often there. Many mid-century lamps were never signed, and an unsigned lamp is an attribution, not a confirmed Van Briggle. Our Van Briggle pottery marks guide and dating guide cover what each mark style means.

Clay and Glaze

Where the clay is visible, use the same rule as the rest of the ware: white clay before 1970, buff after (see Clay Body History). Mid-century lamps are usually in matte turquoise, Persian Rose, mulberry, blue, or Moonglo white, all covered in the Glaze Reference.

Wiring: some lamps still have their original cords, but old cloth or rubber wiring is a fire risk. Plan to rewire before using one. A lamp rewire kit with socket, cord, and harp covers most table lamps. Keep the original parts if you replace them; a lamp that has been rewired sells fine, but a collector will want to know.

These ranges come from auction results between 2009 and 2024. Mid-century lamps regularly sell below their low estimates, so asking prices of $300 to $600 at dealers and on marketplaces are well above what most of them bring at auction.

What moves the price: the original shade in good condition, a clear mark, a named figural form, and size. A lamp with a missing finial, a cracked shade, or no mark sits at the bottom of its range. For values across all Van Briggle forms, see our Van Briggle value guide.

Regional Auctions

Most of the sold prices above came from regional and estate auction houses, where lamps turn up a few at a time and often go under estimate. Crafted Auction in Illinois, connected to JustArtPottery.com, runs Van Briggle-heavy sales that include lamps and even loose butterfly shades.

Estate Sales

Lamps were bought new at the pottery shop by tourists and Colorado families from the 1940s on, and many have sat in the same house since. Online estate sale sites and local estate sales are good hunting grounds, especially in Colorado and the Mountain West.

eBay, Etsy & Dealers

Marketplaces always have a few listed. Asking prices run $100 to $600, so check eBay’s sold listings before you offer, and ask the seller for photos of the base, the cord hole, and the inside of the shade.

Specialist Auctions

Early pieces that have been made into lamps belong at art pottery specialists such as Toomey & Co. and Rago, where they are catalogued by design number and date.