The "Flying Goose" can be considered the trademark paperweight of the Gentile family. The "flying goose" design was actually patented by John Funfrock in 1948. The first "Flying Goose" weight was made by Peter Gentile, the founder of the Gentile paperweight-making family. He was originally from Naples, Italy. He was born there in 1884.
Peter eventually came to America with his glassmaking skills and worked in a couple of cities before starting his own business and building his own factory in 1947 in Star City, West Virginia. The name Gentile is actually pronounced Gen-Tee-Lay. As noted above, in the beginning, the early "goose" figure was more substantial. The "goose" got thinner as time wore on.
Peter's three sons John, Joseph, and Frank, were involved early on with paperweight-making, but when the Gentile Glass works really made a name for itself, in the mid-1960s and onward, it was primarily Peter, son John, and John's wife Gertrude who made the paperweights.
Recognizing that their work deserved to be signed, they ultimately began identifying their output with a series of different stamps on the base. This occurred sometime in or after 1963. They've used a variety of stamps such as a G, a shield, their name, the Liberty Bell, a glassblower, etc. for "signatures."