April 12, 1984
DR. EGON NEUSTADT, A MAJOR COLLECTOR OF TIFFANY LAMPS
By JAMES BARRON

Dr. Egon Neustadt, an orthodontist who owned one of the largest private collections of Tiffany lamps in the world, was found dead yesterday in his Manhattan apartment. He was 86 years old. While the cause of death was not immediately known, the police said Dr. Neustadt had died of natural causes.

Dr. Neustadt's apartment contained more than 350 Tiffany lamps of glass and bronze. Many had tree-trunk forms that gave way to glittering glass shades patterned with wisteria petals, poinsettias, daffodils and dogwood blossoms.

Dr. Neustadt, who was born in Vienna, began collecting the lamps in the 1930's when his wife purchased one.

''Tiffany blended perfectly with the Jacobean furnishings in our Long Island home,'' he said in 1971. ''Our home was large and needed many lamps, and the prices were low - from $35 to $50 and even as low as $12.50.'' 'A Definitive Collection'

He said he bought every type of lamp that Louis Comfort Tiffany made, even if he did not like it. ''The point was to have a definitive collection that would show to others the full range of Tiffany's work,'' he said.

Last year, he lent more than 125 pieces to the New-York Historical Society in what was called the most comprehensive Tiffany exhibition ever held. Several experts questioned the authenticity of some items in the collection and said a few might be fakes or forgeries. By the time the show opened, the society said it had removed all but one of the lamps that were believed to have been misattributed.

Earlier this year, Dr. Neustadt gave the lamps to the society. Dr. James M. Bell, the director of the society's museum, said they comprised about a third of Dr. Neustadt's collection and were worth more than $7 million.

Dr. Neustadt wrote ''The Lamps of Tiffany,'' which was published in 1970.

In the 1940's, he bought a 400-acre wooded tract in the Berkshires' foothills in Sherman, Conn. In the 1950's, he developed it as Candlewood Lake Estates, a community offering a woodland setting for summer homes.

There are no immediate survivors. Dr. Neustadt's wife, Hildegard, died in 1961. Funeral arrangements were incomplete last night.