Hum! I understand what you are saying but I am still not convinced by the authenticity of this weight...
I know that SL had only just restarted making paperweights by then but this seems too clumsy an effort to be right. Even if the date cane says 1954, it is a whole year after starting production (and if I remember well, SL kick-started paperweight making in 1952, most of which was spent researching and rediscovering paperweight-making techniques. It is on the strength of their effort in that year that they decided to restart production in 1953 - so by 1954 they would have been at it for two years). Personally, if I had been responsible for taking the decision of producing paperweights again, I would not have done so on the basis of the paperweight on Ebay. SL workers must have had to produce something better than that to justify a return to production.
Also the canes (however blurry) do not seem to fit. I have seen a couple of their early modern weights in the past and I remember very different canes; the early canes I remember looked much more like a 'memory' of the canes they had produced in the 19th c.
On the other hand, the two of you have a lot more experience than me and must have handled (a lot) more SL weights too. AARGH! I am completely confused... I really thought that the Ebay weight was an interesting and (very) elaborate fake...
SophieB