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A paperweight is a small solid object heavy enough, when placed on top of papers, to keep them from blowing away in a breeze or from moving under the strokes of a painting brush (as with
Chinese calligraphy Chinese calligraphy is the writing of Chinese characters as an art form, combining purely visual art and interpretation of the literary meaning. This type of expression has been widely practiced in China and has been generally held in high est ...
). While any object, such as a stone, can serve as a paperweight, decorative paperweights of glass are produced, either by individual artisans or factories, usually in limited editions, and are collected as works of fine
glass art Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glas ...
, some of which are exhibited in museums. First produced in about 1845, particularly in France, such decorative paperweights declined in popularity before undergoing a revival in the mid-twentieth century.


Basic features

Decorative glass paperweights have a flat or slightly concave base, usually polished but sometimes frosted,
cut Cut may refer to: Common uses * The act of cutting, the separation of an object into two through acutely-directed force ** A type of wound ** Cut (archaeology), a hole dug in the past ** Cut (clothing), the style or shape of a garment ** Cut (ea ...
in one of several variations (e.g. star-cut bases have a multi-pointed star, while a diamond cut base has grooves cut in a criss-cross pattern), although a footed weight has a flange in the base. The ground on which the inner parts rest may be clear or colored, made of unfused sand, or resemble lace (latticinio). The domed top is usually faceted or cut and made of
lead glass Lead glass, commonly called crystal, is a variety of glass in which lead replaces the calcium content of a typical potash glass. Lead glass contains typically 18–40% (by weight) lead(II) oxide (PbO), while modern lead crystal, historically als ...
and may be coated with one or more thin layers of colored glass, and have windows cut through it to reveal the interior motif. Workmanship, design, rarity, and condition determine a paperweight's value: its glass should not have a yellow or greenish cast, and there should be no unintentional asymmetries, or unevenly spaced or broken elements. Visible flaws, such as bubbles, striations and scratches lessen the value. Antique paperweights, of which perhaps 10,000 or so survive (mostly in museums), generally appreciate steadily in value; as of August 2018 the record price was the $258,500 paid in 1990 for an antique French weight.


History

Antique paperweights were made in the "classic" years between 1845 and 1860 primarily in three French factories named
Baccarat Baccarat or baccara (; ) is a card game played at casinos. It is a comparing card game played between two hands, the "player" and the "banker". Each baccarat coup (round of play) has three possible outcomes: "player" (player has the higher score ...
, Saint-Louis and Clichy. Together, they made between 15,000 and 25,000 weights in the classic period. Weights (mainly of lesser quality) were also made in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere, though Bacchus (UK) and
New England Glass Company Libbey, Inc., (formerly Libbey Glass Company and New England Glass Company) is a glass production company headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. It was originally founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts as the ''New England Glass Company'' in 1818'','' before ...
(US) produced some that equaled the best of the French. Modern weights have been made from about 1950 to the present. In the US, Charles Kaziun started in 1940 to produce buttons, paperweights, inkwells and other bottles, using lamp-work of elegant simplicity. In Scotland, the pioneering work of Paul Ysart from the 1930s onward preceded a new generation of artists such as William Manson, Peter McDougall, Peter Holmes and John Deacons. A further impetus to reviving interest in paperweights was the publication of Evangiline Bergstrom's book, ''Old Glass Paperweights'', the first of a new genre. A number of small studios appeared in the mid-20th century, particularly in the US. These may have several to some dozens of workers with various levels of skill cooperating to produce their own distinctive line. Notable examples are Lundberg Studios, Orient and Flume, Correia Art Glass, St. Clair, Lotton, and Parabelle Glass. Starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists such as Francis Whittemore, Paul Stankard, his former assistant Jim D'Onofrio, Chris Buzzini, Delmo and daughter Debbie Tarsitano, Victor Trabucco and sons, Gordon Smith, Rick Ayotte and his daughter Melissa, the father and son team of Bob and Ray Banford, and Ken Rosenfeld began breaking new ground and were able to produce fine paperweights rivaling anything produced in the classic period.


Types of glass paperweights

Collectors may specialize in one of several types of paperweights, but more often they wind up with an eclectic mix.
Millefiori Millefiori () is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). Apsley Pellatt in his book ''Curiosities of ...
(Italian—'thousand flowers') paperweights contain thin cross-sections of cylindrical composite canes made from colored rods and usually resemble little flowers, although they can be designed after anything, even letters and dates. These are usually made in a factory setting. They exist in many variations such as scattered, patterned, close concentric or carpet ground. Sometimes the canes are formed into a sort of upright tuft shaped like a mushroom that is encased in the dome. The year of manufacture is sometimes enclosed in one of the canes.
Lampwork Lampworking is a type of glasswork in which a torch or lamp is used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements. It is also known as flameworking or torchworking, as the moder ...
paperweights have objects such as flowers, fruit, butterflies or animals constructed by shaping and working bits of colored glass with a gas burner or torch and assembling them into attractive compositions, which are then incorporated into the dome. This is a form particularly favored by studio artists. The objects are often stylized, but may be highly realistic. Sulfide paperweights have an encased cameo-like medallion or portrait plaque made from a special ceramic that is able to reproduce very fine detail. These are known as incrustations, cameo incrustations, or sulphides. They often are produced to commemorate some person or event. From the late 1700s through the end of the 1900s, an amazing variety of glass objects, including paperweights, were made with incrustations. The finest collection of incrustations ever assembled was by Paul Jokelson, collector, author and founder of the Paperweight Collectors' Association. A part of his collection was gifted to the
Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...
, with the remaining portion being sold in London in the 1990s. Although still produced today, their heyday was before the classic period. Most paperweights, which are considered works of art, use one of the above techniques; millefiori, lampwork or sulphide — all techniques that had been around long before the advent of paperweights. A fourth technique, a crimp flower, usually a rose, originated in the Millville, New Jersey area in the first decade of the twentieth century. Often called a Millville rose, these weights range from simple folk art to fine works of art, depending on the maker. Fine weights not made with any of the major techniques include swirls, marbries and crowns. Swirl paperweights have opaque rods of two or three colors radiating like a pinwheel from a central millefiori floret. A similar style, the marbrie, is a paperweight that has several bands of color close to the surface that descend from the apex in a looping pattern to the bottom of the weight. Crown paperweights have twisted ribbons, alternately colored and white filigree which radiate from a central millefiori floret at the top, down to converge again at the base. This was first devised in the Saint Louis factory and remains popular today. Miniature weights have a diameter of less than approximately , and magnums have a diameter greater than about . California-style paperweights are made by "painting" the surface of the dome with colored molten glass (torchwork), and manipulated with picks or other tools. They may also be sprayed while hot with various metallic salts to achieve an
iridescent Iridescence (also known as goniochromism) is the phenomenon of certain surfaces that appear to gradually change color as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes. Examples of iridescence include soap bubbles, feathers, butterfl ...
look. Victorian portrait and advertising paperweights were dome glass paperweights first made in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania using a process patented in 1882 by William H. Maxwell. The portrait paperweights contained pictures of ordinary people reproduced on a
milk glass Milk glass is an opaque or translucent, milk white or colored glass that can be blown or pressed into a wide variety of shapes. First made in Venice in the 16th century, colors include blue, pink, yellow, brown, black, and white. Principle Mi ...
disk and encased within clear glass. This same process was also used to produce paperweights with the owner's name encased or an advertisement of a business or product. Pittsburgher Albert A. Graeser patented a different process for making advertising paperweights in 1892. The Graeser process involved sealing an image to the underside of a rectangular
glass blank A glass blank is a piece of glass that requires additional decoration before it is considered finished. Types of decoration include cutting, engraving, acid-etching, gilding, and enameling. Often the term blank is used in reference to an uncut pie ...
using a milk glass or enamel-like glaze. Many paperweights of the late 19th century are marked either J. N. Abrams or Barnes and Abrams and may list either the 1882 Maxwell or 1892 Graeser patent date.


Museum collections

The United States has a number of museums exhibiting paperweight collections, including the
Arthur Rubloff Arthur Rubloff (June 25, 1902 – May 24, 1986) was an American real estate developer who founded Arthur Rubloff & Co. and is credited with naming and developing North Michigan Avenue in Chicago, Illinois into the "Magnificent Mile". Biography ...
collection at the
Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...
, which expanded its exhibition in 2012. The
Corning Museum of Glass The Corning Museum of Glass is a museum in Corning, New York in the United States, dedicated to the art, history, and science of glass. It was founded in 1951 by Corning Glass Works and currently has a collection of more than 50,000 glass obje ...
in
Corning, New York Corning is a city in Steuben County, New York, United States, on the Chemung River. The population was 10,551 at the 2020 census. It is named for Erastus Corning, an Albany financier and railroad executive who was an investor in the company t ...
, exhibits the
Amory Houghton Amory Houghton (July 27, 1899 – February 21, 1981) served as United States Ambassador to France from 1957 to 1961 and as national president of the Boy Scouts of America. He was chairman of the board of Corning Glass Works (1941–1961). In 195 ...
collection. The
Yelverton Paperweight Centre Yelverton Paperweight Centre was a paperweight museum and supplier in Leg O'Mutton, a small hamlet near Yelverton, in the English county of Devon. The museum began as the private collection of a Cornish postmaster, and grew to contain over 1,20 ...
in Devon, England, a collection of over 1,000 paperweights, closed in 2013. Another museum with a notable exhibition of outstanding American paperweights is in the Museum of American Glass at the Wheaton Arts and Cultural Center in
Millville, New Jersey Millville is a city in Cumberland County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the city's population was 28,400,Currier Museum of Art The Currier Museum of Art is an art museum in Manchester, New Hampshire, in the United States. It features European and American paintings, decorative arts, photographs and sculpture. The permanent collection includes works by Picasso, Matisse, Mon ...
in
Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Hamp ...
.


Paperweight collectors

Famous collectors include the literary figures
Colette Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (; 28 January 1873 – 3 August 1954), known mononymously as Colette, was a French author and woman of letters. She was also a mime, actress, and journalist. Colette is best known in the English-speaking world for her ...
,
Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...
and
Truman Capote Truman Garcia Capote ( ; born Truman Streckfus Persons; September 30, 1924 – August 25, 1984) was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, ...
.
Empress Eugenie An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( e ...
(Napoleon III's wife), Empress Carlotta (wife of
Maximilian I of Mexico Maximilian I (german: Ferdinand Maximilian Josef Maria von Habsburg-Lothringen, link=no, es, Fernando Maximiliano José María de Habsburgo-Lorena, link=no; 6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867) was an Austrian archduke who reigned as the only Emperor ...
) and Farouk, King of Egypt were also avid collectors.Hollister, p 21 Another famous collector was
Lothar-Günther Buchheim Lothar-Günther Buchheim () (February 6, 1918 – February 22, 2007) was a German author, painter, and wartime journalist under the Nazi regime. In World War II he served as a war correspondent aboard ships and U-boats. He is best known for ...
, the German author and painter, best known for his novel ''
Das Boot ''Das Boot'' (, English: "The Boat") is a 1981 West German war film written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen, produced by Günter Rohrbach, and starring Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, and Klaus Wennemann. It has been exhibited both as ...
''. His collection of about 3,000 paperweights can be seen at his museum in Germany—
Museum der Phantasie The Museum der Phantasie (aka. Buchheim-Museum) is a museum in Bernried am Starnberger See. Named after Lothar-Günther Buchheim, whose art collection it holds, it was opened to the public on 23 May 2001. Buchheim is also the author of the best-s ...
—in Bernried, Bavaria, Starnberger See.


See also

*
Glass museums and galleries Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
*
Snow globe A snow globe (also called a waterglobe, snowstorm, or snowdome) is a transparent sphere, traditionally made of glass, enclosing a miniaturized scene of some sort, often together with a model of a town, neighborhood, landscape or figure. The sphe ...
*
Marble (toy) A marble is a small spherical object often made from glass, clay, steel, plastic, or agate. They vary in size, and most commonly are about in diameter. These toys can be used for a variety of games called ''marbles'', as well being placed in mar ...


References


Further reading

* Dunlop, Paul H. (2009) ''The Dictionary of Glass Paperweights'' * Dunlop, Paul H. (1991) The Jokelson Collection of Cameo Incrustation * Reilly, Pat, (1994) ''Paperweights: The Collector's Guide to Identifying, Selecting, and Enjoying New and Vintage Paperweights'' * Selman, Lawrence H. (1992) ''All About Paperweights'' * Jargstorf, Sibylle (1997) ''Paperweights'' . * Stankard, Paul J. (2007) ''No Green Berries or Leaves—The Creative Journey of an Artist in Glass'' softcover and hardcover


External links

{{Commons category, Paperweights Collecting Paper Glass art Glass production