Lothar said: "Are you sure Kevin!??"
Yes, I am sure in what I believe, based on the visual evidence and other broadly similar items I have seen before. The quality of the Thistle weight is not what I would expect from Paul Ysart. The cane in the garland is known in several items from the early Vasart period and may also have been used in the late Vasart and Strathearn periods, too. I do not recall seeing that cane in Paul Ysart's work. From an enlarged copy of the eBay photo showing the pontil mark, the stress lines are far more consistent with the work of Salvador than with Paul, but it's not always easy to understand or see what the difference is.
Although it needs a UV check to be sure that an item like this was not, in fact, made in the later Vasart or Strathearn years (or maybe even later?), I would be surprised if was a later item.
As a general point:
It is known that Salvador Ysart was not keen on paperweights when Paul started to be very interested in them. But there are enough examples of weights and bottles from the early Vasart years to show that those items were necessary to help pay the bills and make a bit of profit. I think it is quite reasonable to believe that the better quality items, and the more unusual ones, from those years were the work of Salvador. Many items show features (such as the form of stress lines around the pontil mark) that tie up with other work attributed to Salvador (for example, the 3D butterfly weights).
Topic: Ysart thistle paperweight (Read 3527 times)
