Topic: Perthshire Paperweights puzzle

[Frank]

Have now added nearly 300 Perthshire Paperweights images and I am puzzled...

Several limited editions were offered in optional colours, does this mean that the edition count was per colour or per design?

Then there is the huge variety of design within a single code, has anyone ever devised a means of distinguishing these? PP's descriptions "A large weight of unusual design :? " and "A similar medium sized weight with millefiori cane" are not the most descriptive  :shock:

Compared to the florid marketing of Caithness, quite an eye opener :!:

[wrightoutlook]

I've often wondered that myself about Perthshire paperweight production until I read the Mahoney/McClanahan book. Colors may vary within the edition. The edition # is design-oriented. Of course, the general, non-limited weights would have myriad colors.

[KevinH]

Yes, it does seem complicated ... because it was!

From The Complete Guide to Perthshire Paperweights, page 75:

COLOR VARIATIONS: Ground and cane colors vary unless a specific color is indicated. Different cane colors can cause major differences in the appearance of the weight by accenting different parts of the design.

My understanding is that an Edition applied to the Design (i.e. "PP" or other Designation number).

There seemed to be "Limited Editions" that had no edition number specified. Annual Collection, Christmas and Special Editions did have numbers but again colours could vary. An example of further confusion is the Annual Collection "1972B" weight which was the same design as the "1971D" except that it was faceted.

I would add that in some cases, weights can have a slight difference in the pattern even though they have the same design number!

A specific example of the different colouring and also partail design appearance is highlighted by such as PP12, whch is designated as a Limited Edition. For 1969 to 1975 the base colour was translucent with white lace and for 1976/7 they had a coloured lace ground. Also, the base colours were varied as blue or light green, although for 76/7 they were just blue.

And PP32, for example, was a case of several variations in the millefiori pattern and also in the faceting. Many of this Limited Edition look like completely different designs. It was also a design that had the varied cane letter designating the year of making.

[Frank]

I show two completely different pp32, had them in the general section :oops:  fixed.

Images are a bit small for now but I can increase and I do have photos contributed. If anyone has the other catalogues... scans at 300 dpi please :lol:

[glasstrufflehunter]

I noticed in the McClanahan book a lot of the limited editons were in supposed to be like 300 pieces but they didn't end up making that many.

I don't remember what year it was but I got a hankering to have a PP62 with that hot opaque red ground they sometimes used. I mentioned it to my dealer and he talked to Perthshire and they made up 3 of them for me to choose from. I didn't know at the time if they made that weight with that red ground before or not but the last 3 red ones made were at my instigation.  

[Frank]

Lots of the CG editions closed well short of edition... opening Charlton at random. Page 83
150 full
350 closed at 160
500 closed at 93
500 closed at 409
350 closed at 170
250 closed at 184

Total
2100 produced  1166 just 55%. It would be interesting to do that on a year by year basis.

With the PP's I am listing the different size of editions against each year that I have data for.