Topic: Mystery Paperweight

[ChokGuzel]

`Please help if you can. I bought this late last year as it intrigued me. But I cant decide who or where made it. I am sure it is an antique . The cane work and ground are very Bohemian in style. The pink cane has 24 cogs and there is a naive torsade around the set up. The profile and base shapes are typical of Old English weights. It is a full magnum at just under 4 inches diameter. I would love a positive id but any informed ideas will be gratefully received too.  

[tropdevin]

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Hi.  The canes are very much in the style of Val St Lambert (see image below), and they make big weights, and like torsades...so I suspect it might be one of theirs.

Alan

[ChokGuzel]

Thanks I think you have cracked it 1st time the canes are almost identical with the central cross and the colours. Are these French or Belgium? and any ideas of the dates?
Cheers

[tropdevin]

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Hi.  Val St Lambert are Belgian, and have been in business since the late 1820s to the present day. They had four large factories at one time, along the Meuse valley. They have made paperweights for much of that time (since the 1850s), in limited numbers, and not always with millefiori - there are many cut flash overlay designs. I collect the millefiori :-) .

I think yours might be pre 1930, maybe much older,  but I could not be precise.

Alan

[ChokGuzel]

Once again thanks. I have dusted off my pw8 books and done some research on VSL and was quite shoked to find most books dont bother listing them?.. One book though had quite a good write up with an interesting observation saying the VSL millefiori weights "have something of the ice cream parlour about them" which is quite a good quote I thought.  Now I have an idea what it is I will do some good pics a get it on Ebay.