Hi Lily and Alan,
I've rarely seen a Baccarat close-packed weight that has what could be accepted as original facetting, save for one or two that have the common Baccarat arrangement of six printies around the sides and one, larger, on the top. This leads me to suspect that Baccarat did not generally facet their close-packed weights.
As the beauty of a close-packed weight isn't in its overall design but is in the detail of the millefiore canes used, I don't think that Baccarat would have regarded the sacrifice of the effect of magnification of these weights as any improvement; in fact I believe that they would have regarded it as being to their detriment.
In view of this and in view of the fact that all-over facetted Baccarat weights are generally to be found illustrated in the older reference books, auction catalogues and collections, all predating the greater awareness of the house-styles of facetting used by different glass companies, I don't believe their facetting to be original.
In restoration all-over facetting is a much easier pattern to employ successfully than attempting to recreate the original profile of an unfacetted weight; this could explain why it would have been used with some frequency, especially on weights that, having an all-over pattern themselves, would not have had their design affected so adversely by this later cutting.
Lily asks about examples of original facetting on Baccarat weights and I have some; I've attached four photos here and one with a subsequent posting:
The most common Baccarat facetting employed was the “6+1” that Lily refers to; which we know well.
It would seem that Baccarat did use other facetting patterns but generally for specific types of weight; for example the larger sulphides, including the Hunter and Joan of Arc are generally facetted with a large ten-sided top-facet surrounded by multiple, geometric side-facets, as are some of their snake weights particularly the green on muslin examples.
Their flowers and upright-bouquets were often cut with rows of printies around their sides; some of the single garlanded examples cut with a top-facet, in my experience the upright-bouquets generally without.
Opaque and flash overlays were usually cut with the six side printies and one on top, often with the addition of finger-fluting or olives cut around the base; the flash-overlays almost always with the former.
There are a small number of Baccarat mushroom weights with a circle of roses, evidently in imitation of such Clichy weights, and these are invariably cut, Clichy-style, with five round side-facets and one flat top-facet.
Flat bouquets of smaller size (just over 3 in.) that were cut in the more common fashion sometimes appear with their top facet cut larger and very slightly dished. Whether this was to be used as a wafer-dish as in similar St. Louis examples I am unsure. [I don’t have an example with a dished top.]
Nicholas