Fancy lighting up your living room with the ambient glow of a historically-important piece of design? It might set you back up to $5 million (€4.35 million).

A rare lamp from legendary American architect Frank Lloyd Wright is about to go up for auction. He designed the Double-Pedestal lamp for the Dana–Thomas House, which he built for the philanthropist Susan Lawrence Dana in 1902.

Completed in 1904, the Springfield, Illinois house is a classic of Wright’s decadent design style through its sense of flow and resplendent selection of leaded glass windows, bringing light into every crevice.

Alongside the windows and skylights, the Dana–Thomas House was lit by the largest collection of Wright’s glass-built furniture, including Double-Pedestal lamps. Only two of the unique lamps remain. One is owned by the house’s collection, with the second now going up for sale.

The Double-Pedestal lamp will go to auction as part of Sotheby’s Modern Evening Auction on 13 May. It is estimated to sell for between $3 million (€2.61 million) and $5 million (€4.35 million).

“The lamp distils the essence of Wright’s design principles into a single object – like a miniature house crafted by the architect himself,” said Jodi Pollack, Sotheby’s chairman.

Wright, who died in 1959, was one of the key figures of 20th century design. He designed over 1,000 items, including more than 400 buildings. Around 300 of these buildings still survive including many of his most famous such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Fallingwater, and his own family home.

Dana was one of the first women who employed Wright to design a house. The result was the boldest design of Wright’s career up to that point, featuring the philanthropist’s love of Japanese art, and commitment to social justice as a throughline theme of the building.

Carrying on the design ethos of the house into its objects, the lamp’s bronze structure and kaleidoscopic glass create the image of a traditional Japanese temple with the ‘sumac pattern’ from the house’s interior design replicated on the lamp’s top.

Designed when electric lamps were still a relative novelty, Pollack describes the lamp as a “beacon of innovation, progress, and modernity.”

The lamp was last sold at auction for $2 million (€3.09 million adjusted for inflation) in 2002. Technically, the most a lamp from the architect has gone for is $2.9 million (€2.64 million adjusted) for a 1902 ceiling light from the Francis W. Little House in 2023.

“As the last remaining example of this treasured icon to remain in private hands, this offering presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for collectors and institutions to acquire one of the great masterpieces of our generation,” Pollack said.