One lucky New Yorker stumbled upon a tulip floor lamp left on the side of the road earlier this week. If only its owner had known sooner that the lamp was worth more than $4000.
A passerby shared the vintage item on the sidewalk in Manhattan via the popular Instagram account Stooping NYC, which is dedicated to sharing items found on the street. The picture of the tulip floor lamp was seen on the account on Sunday.
The account captioned the post: “Finally a flower that won’t die. In between Lafayette and 3rd ave on 9th !!”
The image was later reshared by Twitter user Sean Viola (@seanieviola), who recognised the distinct tulip design as a 1989 Peter Bliss Tulip Floor Lamp.
“Someone in NYC threw out this 80’s vintage tulip lamp designed by Peter Bliss and I’m about to cry,” they tweeted.
The Peter Bliss floor lamp retails at $4,300 on the vintage furniture site Chairish, but it is currently on sale for $2,500. Over on the luxury furniture marketplace 1st Dibs, the red tulip version of the lamp sold for $5,195.
Many design lovers had a similar reaction to Sean after they discovered that the Peter Bliss floor lamp was left on the side of the road.
“I would give my arm for this lamp,” replied one person.
“I will happily take myself to nyc and go dumpster diving because wtf,” said another shocked user.
“Rich people if y’all breaking up and want to throw stuff, contact me,” said a third person.
It appears that discovering vintage finds on New York City sidewalks isn’t as uncommon as one might think. Some people also shared the luxury furniture they’ve come across on the side of the road.
“Ok this happened to me last year….my roommate has an authentic $2,000 Caprani lamp because of me,” one person shared, alongside an image of the Caprani floor lamp tossed on the sidewalk.
Another New Yorker even found a pair of Prada sneakers in the trash, and decided they weren’t going to let them go to waste. “One thing about me is I’m not above wearing men’s Prada sneakers that I found in the trash,” they said.
Dumpster diving, also known as “freeganism” – a combination of the words “free” and “vegan” – has grown in popularity in recent years, especially in New York City. In 2020, the amount of discarded food still considered edible reached 68 per cent in the city. Now, freegans on social media are using their platforms to expose the amount of food waste in the US.
The TikTok account Dumpster Diving Freegan went viral in October 2021 when the person who runs the account found nearly 100 loaves of bread thrown out from a single Whole Foods store in just one night. The TikTokker also found olive oil, baby food and toilet paper that had been thrown out, and said they were able to salvage most of the items and donated them to a food bank.
