Topic: Paperweight with fish

[rbm6167]

This came to me as part of a job lot and I cannot manage to identify it. I have seen it somewhere before but all attempts to ID it have failed. Can someone please help.
Regards
John

[Lustrousstone]

Wild guess, one of the Ysarts  :huh:

[rbm6167]

It certainly has a similarity to the Ysart paperweights but the blue mottled background put me off - as did the fact that it was one of 8 paperweights  picked up for £40. I had been wondering about some of the Ysart apprentices who went on to become masters in their own right, such as William Manson, John Deacons or Peter Holmes. I thought it might be a Caithness weight but apart from having gone through the complete Caithness Paperweights catalogue and not finding it, the base points more in the direction of Vasart/Strathearn rather than the flat, polised Caithness base.
John

[GlassGoes]

I am no expert on paperweights but I do remember seeing fish paperweights of a similar type by Paul Ysart but the background looks different to the ones I've seen. The base is certainly in keeping with Scottish paperweights I've encountered especially the Vasart ones.
Regards
Paul

[tropdevin]

***

I would agree with a Scottish attribution, but the fish does not look like a Paul Ysart fish.  Might it be a one-off from the last days of Strathearn, when - according to Dave Moir - the workers were free to experiment?  Or perhaps a piece made on a Willie Manson paperweight making course?

Alan

[rbm6167]

Thanks all for your contributions. The ring of canes looks very much like the canes in Strathearn weights but I had never heard of "fish" being featured in their weights so had discounted it being Strathearn. However, that could well be explained by what you are saying, Alan, and it now certainly seems more feasible. In every other way if looks and feels like a Strathearn weight.
John

[KevinH]

It is definitely not a Paul Ysart weight! At least not like any of his Fish weights I have seen.

The canes are "Ysart style" (in the most generic sense) and probably more likely to be later Vasart or early Strathearn. I don't recall seeing any other weight with a fish like that on a ground of that type.