Topic: Id help Please

[dreama]

Does anyone know anything about the PW, how old? where it may have came from , who made it? 

[KevinH]

Please show a photo looking straight down on the top - preferably without light reflections. Or tell us what the wording says.

[tropdevin]

***

Hi.  I suspect it is American mid-West, probably Degenhart. As for date, probably around 1896  .

Alan

[dreama]

I also thought degenhart, but was not sure of the age?  which degenhart would it have been in 1896?  and made at Cambridge glass?  I dont think degenhart was in business then was it ?  here a closer pic

[dreama]

It says John Toth to Jamie Saxon 1896

[paperweights]

It could be an early Degenhart, but not quite that old.  The date is probably a commemorative date rather than the date it was made.  The earliest Degenhart weights date from the 1920s, although there is little documentation of the early work done at Cambridge Glass.

[dreama]

I understand, most of the time the date is not when they are made, but from a birth death etc.  But this one puzzled me because it says "to", almost like it was meant to be presented to someone for something, the bottom is very rough, not finished at all.  i got it from someone in Kansas, I have tried to google the names and they are some in ohio, pa, ga, and kansas.   But i do not think this was made in kansas, it does look like a degenhart, but if the date is right, i could not be because the brothers would have been about 13 years old, if i counted right.  if the date is wrong, then  it could be, but why does it say "to", then nothing else.  I will attach a pic of the bottom

[KevinH]

I guess it was simply a gift "from John to Jamie", at a significant date.

[dreama]

That was my first thought, and if so then who would have made it, it would be to early for degenhart, yet it looks a  lot like one they made

[Fuhrman Glass]

I suspect it was made at one of the factories operating in Indiana or Ohio at the turn of the century. They made lots of these type of weights as gift for special occasions. Usually done on a lunch hour or after hours. Gas City had a plant that made some of these and at that time there were literally dozens of factories in Eastern Indiana. Many of them were making jars and bottles in huge quantities and this sort of item would have been made by one of the workers "off the clock". Western Ohio also had quite a few factories at this time as gas was running out and many were relocating to Indianan where gas was newly discovered. Many of the factories only existed for a few years and then were out of business or consolidated. Museum of American Glass has a reprint of a lengthy treatise of the factories of Indiana that is available as a reprint on ebay and a very interesting read if you're into history.
BTW: I've had quite a few of these over the years. Some were also attributed to some factories in Western Pennsylvania. The 1896 could well be close to the date it was produced.