Topic: pretty little millefiori paperweight, tiny canes any ideas??

[jonchellycain]

Hi all i picked this little paperweight up at the weekend, mainly becasue its quite a cute pretty little thing, does anybody have any ideas on maker or age.
It is just over 4cms in diameter, it has contentric canes in white, pink, green and blue.
The centre cane is quite coggy and at first look seems quite crude but it has tiny little star end rods in the centre.
The next ring of canes have a ring of white star shaped canes, with a ring of pink canes with central darker pink star canes, with a coiled blue centrral cane.
The third ring of canes have an alternate pattern one cane has a green outer, then white with a pale and darker pink centre which has tiny tiny star canes and coiled centre cane (looks like sushi).
The other outer ring cane has a coggy white outer then clear then the coggy white again in the centre is tiny mixed blue and green rods.
The base is smooth, well polished and flat with the outer edge showing wear, at first look i thought it was brand new but on closer inspection the wear on the base makes me think its a touch older than the last 10-15 years
the more you look with this one the more you see type of thing, its actually a quite well made piece, although this may not come accross from the pictures
many thanks in advance
michelle

[tropdevin]

Hi Michelle

I'm pretty sure it is antique French, but the canes look to be set very low in the base for typical 'classic period' weights.  Given that you say it has a flat base (rather than concave) I suspect it has been ground down to remove damage.  The canes are like Baccarat or later Clichy.  I doubt it is as modern as 1920s/1930s Baccarat Dupont.  My vote would be for a cut down 1845 - 1860 Baccarat mini.

Alan

[jonchellycain]

looking really really closley at the base it has a very very slight concave although virtually flat but it sits only on the outer rim... i would be very pleased to find out that its possibly an older piece i paid just £5 for it and mainly because i thought it was pretty
many thanks
michelle

[jonchellycain]

I am by no means any kind of expert on paperweights, although i love them and think they are often sooo pretty, i stuggle to distinguish between a bacchus and a modern murano im afraid (an area i really should try to buff up on)
Ive spent a bit of time tonight looking through my limited paperweight books and studying this little weight, and would like to thank tropdevin so much for your comment... but.. i think it maybe Clichy, which you also mentioned.
Looking through The Encyclopedia Of Glass Paperweights by Paul Hollister, jr he states on page 51 re the Baccarat whorls "The whorl rod may be distinguished from its Clichy counterpart because it is really a spiral open at one end, and not a series of tubes one within another" is this known to be fact???
My weights whorls are tubes within one another. Plus the profile shape matches the sketch given on page 125 a more high topped dome whereas the Baccarat is more of a squashed dome.
I would like to add how amazing it is from my rubbish pictures that you could even begin to make a guess :thup:
michelle

[jonchellycain]

hi all
ive added some better pics of this onto my facebook page for those of you who can access it, the photo's are on 12MP so have more detail, im yet to work out how to get them on here with such high MP.
anybody else agree/disagree all comment gladly recieved (unless you say its chinese )
michelle

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=32249&id=1128860760&saved#/photo.php?pid=772413&id=1128860760

[Lustrousstone]

What program do your pictures open in on your PC Michelle? I'll see if I can talk you through resizing

[jonchellycain]

I use the kodak easyshare one, but jon uses windows photo gallery i can use both though, i generally take the photo on 2.2MP from a couple of feet then go onto edit, then crop and crop the picture as small as i can and that seems to work.. but whenever i do this any higher than 2.2 i get the message on GMB saying file size to big. i really dont understand computer bits to be honest lol
thanks michelle

[Lustrousstone]

Oh it's much easier than that. I'll work it out for you and email you. I assume you don't resize to upload to Facebook. Facebook does it for you because I just right clicked on one of your photos and saved it to my desktop and it's spot-on size wise 604 x 511 pixels and only 52KB. So that might be an easier option

[Leni]

Looking through The Encyclopedia Of Glass Paperweights by Paul Hollister, jr he states on page 51 re the Baccarat whorls "The whorl rod may be distinguished from its Clichy counterpart because it is really a spiral open at one end, and not a series of tubes one within another" is this known to be fact???
My weights whorls are tubes within one another.

Michelle, many paperweight makers used concentric tubes in weights.  It's only when they are actually whorls, not concentric tubes, that you can apply the rules of construction in the way Hollister mentions. 

I think your weight is a Baccarat, now I've seen the larger pics.  If, as I think I can see in the enlargements, it has the little extra points between the points of the 6 point stars, that's a definite sign of Baccarat, whatever the profile.   Do let us know if it is!    

[jonchellycain]

 :huh: :chky:, no i dont do anything when i upload onto facebook, just click on the picture and upload, so as you say it must do it all... it took me ages to work that out
My brain doesnt seem to work like everybody elses lol, i definatly think my dyslexia effects the part of the brain that understands computer things, because i drive my other half mad when i cant do it and he tells me like 20 times, i say its the way he tells me