Topic: Blue & White Swirl Paperweight

[RoyJ99]

Picked up this paperweight at a car boot sale this morning, looks to be good quality and appears to have some age judging by the wear on the base. Wondering about the origins of it. French?

[tropdevin]

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Hi.  It looks antique, possibly French, but not one of the big factories.  It might be Bohemian / Silesian either - the style of the canes that make up the swirl could be Bohemian /Silesian.   I don't recognise the centre cane...that might be the key.

Alam

[RoyJ99]

Thank you Tropdevin, could you recommend any good resources where I should begin my investigation? I don't buy many paperweights but this one just grabbed my attention for some reason.

[tropdevin]

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Hi RoyJ99.  Looking again at the top image, I think I mis-interpretted the colour of the spokes as blue, white and black when I first saw the images: is it just white and blue spirals set in clear glass?  If so, it might well be Clichy.

Alan

[RoyJ99]

Hi Tropdevin, yes they are just blue and white set in clear glass.

[KevinH]

Good point about the spirals. I also thought they were edged in black, and I was considering general European sources.

[RoyJ99]

I can see what you mean with the spirals, they appear black edged but that must just be the shadows, the areas that appear black are actually clear glass, I'll try and take some photos from different angles.

[RoyJ99]

Here's another image taken with the paperweight held up to the window, you can see clearly the space between the blue and white swirls.