Topic: Paul Ysart with 2 snakes on green ground ( 3 dimensional)

[zirney123]

Does anyone know the value of a mint condition Paul Ysart paperweight 8.5 cm wide features 3 dimensional double coiled snakes with their heads up sitting on a green ground.  Glass is very clear, not gray or yellow.  Bottom is smooth with a rough circular pontil mark.  Perfect PY cane resting on the beautiful green ground.  Any information would be appreciated...........value, how many was produced, what period was it produced.

Thanks,  Jeff

[glasstrufflehunter]

Do you have a picture?

[Frank]

Generally fetch substantial sums but details make a difference, post a picture please.

[cfosterk]

Quite a rarity....

Are you asking in order to sell? If so make sure you post details on here about where!! It will spark an awful lot of interest!

I love Paul Ysart's 3d creations - the double coiled snake tends not to be one of his more effective pieces as the snakes tend not to show well when viewed from above. The snakes have to be positioned towards the outside of the weight and the qualities of the glass often mean you see only 2/3rds of each snake!!

There's an illustrated example in Bob Halls book on Scottish paperweights courtesy of Terry and Hiliary Johnson - page 75. The price given for a single snake starts at $1000, and Bob has added a premium of $800/$1200 for the double footed example.

I think the single snake value seems fair now that exchange rates are 2:1 but the double snake...it's worth whatever someones prepared to pay!!

There was a double snake that sold in part 2 of the Parkington Collection on 08/04/1998 but I can find details of what this item realised!! Sorry!!

Good luck whatever you decide to do!!

[Anne]

By *in here* cfosterk means, of course, in the Market Place forum of the board where sales should be shown, and not on the other discussion forums.

[Frank]

The one in plate 166 of Ysart Glass (scanned from book, will rescan from transparency at some point) cost around $1200 in 1989/90 - should have been mine, but Parkington got it imported with a batch to avoid tax, when he saw it he changed his mind and kept it. Grrrrrr!

It remains the only snake I liked.

A similar thing happened with the salamander in Ysart Glass Plate 168, same batch, but another one showed up a week later and he let me have one, that one is on the dust jacket of Ysart Glass - of course he kept the better one for himself.

Such is life.

[cfosterk]

Anne,

Thanks for correcting my post.

I will do 100 lines.....

[KevinH]

The double snake from Part II of the Parkington sale at Christie's South Kensington, 8 Apr 1998, took £1300 hammer against an estimated £500-700 (but all estimates were on the low side). With premium and VAT the full price was £1529. I agree with the comment about double snakes not always looking so good from the top view - and the Parkington one was like that!

The values in the Scottish Paperweights book were, of course, a reflection of those achieved in 1998/1999 and may well have been more akin to "insurance values" rather than actual "sale price".