Could This Be the Most Expensive Tiffany Stained-Glass Window of All Time?

It’s expected to fetch between $5 and $7 million at an upcoming Sotheby’s auction.

More than a century ago, New Jersey resident Annie M. McClymonds approached Tiffany Studios about a special commission. It was to be 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—and postponed the new church’s dedication by a week because of a shipping delay. The paper of record, the Canton Daily News, noted on November 9 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.”

Next 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 November 18, 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 Jodi Pollack, chairman and co-worldwide head of 20th-century design at Sotheby’s. “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.”

Those qualities, when coupled with past auction results, helped Sotheby’s specialists zero in on the multimillion dollar estimate. “There has been nothing up on the market in terms of windows of this caliber, scale, complexity, artistry,” Pollack says.

While the window is attributed to Tiffany Studios, the design was the handiwork of self-taught artist Agnes Northrup. Louis Comfort Tiffany functioned as the driving creative and commercial force behind Tiffany studios, but he relied on a group of women known as the “Tiffany girls” for the design and creation of the company’s windows, vases, and lamps. Northrup was among them, hired by the studio in 1884 to serve as a window designer. In addition to designing the Danner window, Northrup designed some of Tiffany’s most noteworthy pieces, including Linden Hall Windows and Autumn Landscape Window, now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Hartwell Memorial Window, on view at the Art Institute of Chicago.

The auction also marks the first opportunity for the public to get a glimpse of the Danner Memorial Window, which will be on display in New York from November 8 to 18, in more than two decades. Its current owner, billionaire Alan Gerry, founder of Cablevision Industries, purchased the window at auction in 2000 for $2 million at Christie's. Pollack has noted that there's been heightened interest in Tiffany works from private and institutional collectors across the globe—proof that, more than a century on, the window continues to amaze.

“It kind of brings you to your knees,” Pollack says. “It is absolutely dazzling.”

Anna Fixsen is the deputy digital editor of ELLE DECOR, where she oversees all facets of ElleDecor.com. In addition to editing articles and developing digital strategy, she writes about the world’s most beautiful homes, reviews the chicest products (from the best cocktail tables to cute but practical gifts), and reports on the most exciting trends in design and architecture. Since graduating from Columbia Journalism School, she’s spent the past decade as an editor at Architectural Digest, Metropolis, and Architectural Record and has written for outlets including the New York Times, Dwell, and more.

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