Even squeezed back into a corner in the high-end merchandise room at the auction house, the Eiffel Tower stood its ground. It towered boldly over the low-flung Louis XVI chair, patterned headboard and figurine stand surrounding it.
The structure caught my eye as I entered a room where I knew I could afford little, but was enticed by the interesting pieces that the auction house had assembled. Like the Isamu Noguchi chess table that an auctioneer-owner from another auction house had directed me to, and the beautiful French bronze and marble clocks that seemed to dot the room.
This Eiffel Tower was a rustic standout among the antiques, and in a way seemed a bit out of place – almost like I felt browsing in this room. But like me, it held its own, with its 10 feet of greenish metal, its criss-cross of bars and its pointed cap.
The auction catalog described it very simply as an iron Eiffel Tower model. What more was there to say about one of the world’s most iconic and recognizable structures.
The model was no small piece to collect or sit on a table in the home like the many I saw on the web (and the replicas that celebrity Christie Brinkley collects). This baby would need its own space – uncramped like it was at the auction house – so it could be seen, and oohed and aahed over. The auction catalog didn’t indicate how heavy it was, but I suspect that it would need to be supported to remain stationary.
Even it, though, can’t rival the 60-foot one in Paris, TN, that was built in 1990 by engineering students at Christian Brothers University in Memphis for a music festival. Or the real thing on Paris’ Champ de Mars at more than 1,050 feet.
When I went to Paris some years ago, I had to look up the Eiffel Tower, take the elevator to its top and catch my own view of the city. It’s a sight and an adventure that lingers with you and pulls you back as often as possible. Even on one visit, you want to see that sight again and again.
Having the elevators makes it much easier than when the tower was first built in 1889 and its designer Gustave Eiffel walked up the 1,911-step staircase to inaugurate it at the Exposition Universelle. That world’s fair was held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution. Several years before, Eiffel had been brought in to complete the internal design structure for Auguste Bartholdi’s Statue of Liberty, which the French gave to the United States as a gift.
Eiffel built the tower in a little over two years, and it was supposed to be up for no more than 20 years. Nearly 125 years later, 250 million people have visited the Eiffel Tower, and some 7 million each year partake of it.
Those steps that Eiffel walked up were removed in 1983 and the staircase was cut up into at least 24 pieces, with several donated to museums and the rest auctioned to collectors and others. One website noted that no new pieces of the tower are sold, that whenever something needs replacing, the old pieces are destroyed.
Over the years, several of the staircase pieces have been auctioned off by the Drouot auction house in Paris. A 14/15-foot section sold for $220,000 in 2007, and 40 steps sold for $154,380 in 2009. Christie’s of New York auctioned a 14-foot piece in 2011 that brought in $92,500.
You certainly wouldn’t be able to climb any stairs in the model at auction, but it could be a reminder of the trip long gone and savored, or one to look forward to. I wasn’t around for the sale, but the bidding seemed to have gone tit-for-tat until an internet bidder got the model for $1,900.
