Topic: French? Mushroom - Help needed

[alexander]

Hi, I recently found this nice mushroom on French eBay, it is well made and I have no clue as to where it was made,
by who etc. Other than that it orginiated in France and has considerable wear.

It is a red & white mushroom atop a green carpet.
The mushroom itself is a white stem and white on the underside of the hat, the hat is red.
The green carpet is thin and sparkles a little, a bit like aventurine. There are very small air bubbles on the green carpet,
which would be expected since the carpet is "rough" and not smooth.

A couple of small stray bubbles in the clear glass, other than that the glass seems to be very good quality,
clear with little 'tint'. It's hard to tell if it has a miniscule greyish tint as the surface is very scuffed.
Luckily no major damage.

The bottom has considerable wear and a broken off pontil which has not been polished or fire smoothed.
Approx 7 cm across.

I am thinking of having it polished as it's quite nice.

Edit - the main reason I fell fro this weight is that the mushroom inside is so naturalistic,
not stylized but resembling a real mushroom.

Any help muchly appreciated.

Thanks 

I apologise for the images, I have only my cellphone to take pictures with a the moment.

Mushroom viewed from top/side
Underside of mushroom
Bottom & pontil
Viewed from top

[m1asmithw8s]

I don't have the Von Brackel book handy but I recall seeing a weight like this in that book which largely focuses on Bohemian weights.
This looks to be a Bohemian made piece circa between WWI & WWII, possibly earlier.
I'd be interested to read what others think 

[alexander]

Thanks : )

Bohemia had struck me as a possibility too, I don't have a good book for Bohemian weights yet, hope to snare one soon.
I took a look on amazon for the Von Brackel book - looks like one I definately need.

The pictures really doesn't do it justice - I think a polish would restore it's former glory.

What are the opinions of you other paperweight collectors on polishing up a weight?
This is not for resale, this one is for my personal collection : )

[KevinH]

Mark is correct. There is a realistic Mushroom weight on pages 138/9 of the Von Brackel book: Paperweights, Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, 1842 to Present [Schiffer, ISBN 0-7643-1052-6].

It is a Fly Agaric (white stalk, red cap with white spots) set into a dark green semi-transluscent (?) ground. Height 103 mm, diameter at top 89 mm. It is shaped with the top about twice as wide as the base ("Egg-shaped") and is faceted with elongated pentagonal cuts around the sides and with a top window cut.

Described as:

Probably Bavarian Forest. c. 1910-1930 ...

[alexander]

Interesting, the book is on top of my wish list now, as I do have a thing for Bohemian weights.

How does the profile of my weight compare to Bohemian, disregarding the big faceted type weights?

The only pw book I have with more than a passing mention of Bohemian weights is the Jargstorf book
and there aren't many pictures whic show this shape in profile.

Thankyou both, this gives me a focus for my research

[KevinH]

Profiles of Bohemian weights vary enormously and I don't think there is any specific profile that could be said to be definitely Bohemian.

[RAY]

as Kev siad the Profiles of Bohemian weights vary enormously as below

click image

[alexander]

An update to this, I recently observed two auctions on French eBay for almost identical paperweights.
One was id'ed as French, Verrerie De La Bresle 19th century.