Topic: Paperweight for id

[glasseyed]

Hi All

I'm trying to identify the paperweight shown above below, it obviously has some age but I can't quite tie it down!

Any help would be much appreciated.

Hazel

[Mod: Images now added to the post, with Hazel's agreement]

[w8happiness]

Hello Hazel,

a nice weight with some age indeed - the author Peter von Brackel recorded weights like your's in the category of post classic weights (i.e. roughly 1850/60 until 1900) and he only could distinguish a couple of groups with common features, without being able to differentiate a certain source for each group.

So those weights are mostly filed under post classic, from Bohemia, Silesia, Saxony,Bavaria, Thuringia or Lusatia- the youngest identified of them were made in Lauscha/Thuringia (some dated around the 1930ies and 1940ies). Surely the makers had inherited some knowledge about making millefiori, but the domes are sometimes irregular and the glass is sometimes of inferior quality compared to classic pieces of the mentioned areas.

Many of those weights are found in the USA, where German and Bohemian immigrants were coming in around 1850/60, and possibly brought the weights along as a keepsake from their home country.

Hope this helps, best wishes Erhard   

[bat20]

The range of difference in these type of weights is interesting,some scream the areas Erhard suggests and others hint at a strange Chinese cross European weight,I guess here were loads of factories varying in the quality of canes ,etc.

[w8happiness]

Good hint!!- The Austro Hungarian Empire financed the ship Novara to sail around the world from 1857 to 1859, with scientific specialists on board and numerous tasks (geography, medicine, biology, astronomy, economics etc.).

According to their report, the ship also transported and delivered an order of a several dozens of GLASS PAPERWEIGHTS for a Chinese merchant in Shanghai.  One half was from glassworks in Prussia/Saxony (Germany) etc., the other from Bohemia/Silesia/Hungary(Austria)- unfortunately it was not yet possible to find out who and where  the producing glassworks were. 

But those weights may well have been an impulse for copying the imported ware, hence the similarities! Alan Thornton has recorded a number of such "older" Chinese copies,

   http://www.pwts.co.uk/pages/Chinese%20older%20paperweights.htm

Kind regards, Erhard


       

[w8happiness]

*)I have looked it up it was 20 dozens from Austria and 20 dozens from Prussia etc. 
Paperweight Collectors Circle Newsletter, No. 104, November 2010, page 15.

Kind regards, Erhard


     

[glasseyed]

Thank you both for your replies. So it could be either late 19th century European or European/Chinese early 20th century. It belongs to my step daughter so I will let her know that as I suspected the answer is far from cut and dried! It is certainly an interesting and well worn piece.

Kind regards

Hazel

[KevinH]

Hi Hazel,

Would it be ok if I (as a moderator) copied your photos and set them up directly into the thread? We often find that outside links quickly fail for various reasons.

[glasseyed]

Hi Kevin

No problem, I only use an outside link as reducing the size is a pain....

Kind regards

Hazel

[KevinH]

Thanks Hazel,

I have added the images to the post - and they show up big (enough) when clicked on, although not as big as could be achieved with the image hosting zoom control!

Have you tried resizing images with http://www.picresize.com/ ? It is easy to follow and produces good results. Basically upload a copy of your file, set pixel size of longest side to around 700, click on the "resize" control. If it's still over 125Kb, just use the "back" control and reset the pixel size. When ok, click on "download".

[glasseyed]

Thanks for the tip, it looks easy to use so I will try it next time.