Topic: Perthshire, Murano or... someone else?

[Lily of the Valley]

Well, Cat, trying to pin down which company made some of these lovely weights is "clear as mud" for at least some of us! :spls:  After reading the comments and taking a look at my very early Perthshires, I believe your weight to be late Strathearn.  My reasoning is as follows:

1.  Canes have a broader look to them than what I see in the weights above mentioned.
2.  The yellow dot in the center of each of the pink canes encircling the center cane looks to be like a dab of color rather than recessed and/or appearing-to-stand-free of its cogs.
3.  The overall look does not have that crisp look I have come to associate with Perthshire weights.
4.  I do have a translucent ground on a Vasart/Strathhearn but not on my early Perthshires which all have matte grounds. (Thanks, SophieB!)

Forgive my lack of proper terminology in my effort to explain why I believe your pretty weight to be Strathearn.  I must also add I am stepping out on a limb.  If someone else offers more accurate reasoning the other way, then I (we all) will have learned something.  And, that's truly the most important reason for this Board.

My very best .... Lily


Would the center cane be of any assistance in determining who the artist/company is?  I can't make out the design, can you?

 

[KevinH]

It's hard to be sure about this weight.

In it's favour for a Perthshire Paperweights PP1 design is its "1-1-2-2" layout of canes between the spokes. Although others have, quite rightly, pointed out that overall the weight does not look as "crisp" as many Perthshire Paperweights items, the filigrana twists are actually very tidy and the colours stand out well against the paler tint of the canes.

The yellow "dot" at the centre of some canes is not painted on. It is a central rod of yellow running through the full cane. The centre cane is a squashed regular 8-point "daisy" or "star" cane and I do not believe it can easily be tied to any of the possible companies.

I believe the pale green "open center" canes are at least as early as Vasart Ltd therefore pre-dating both Perthshire Paperweights and Strathearn. The use of Vasart (and perhaps some Strathearn) canes in early Perthshire Paperweights work is not all that unusual. After all, Perthshire Paperweights arose out of Strathearn which evolved out of Vasart Ltd, which came out of Ysart Brothers (Vasart) which started with concepts from the pre-war years of Monart - and maybe also a fair bit of influence from Paul Ysart's pre-war paperweight designs (although it is 99.99999% certain that Paul Ysart had nothing to do with the making of this weight).

This weight might have been made at Vasart Ltd. It might have been Strathearn. It might also have been early Perthshire Paperweights pre-1978 because it is unsigned but likely very early (say, 1969 to 1970) because of its use of the "less crisp" and likely Vasart Ltd, or earlier, canes.

Personally, I would like this to be a Vasart Ltd weight but I suspect very early Perthshire Paperweights is a better bet.

[Catisfaction]

Thankyou all for the amazing amount of information you've provided pro and con maker of this weight. There's a lot more technical terms out there than the last time I had a Perthshire in my hands and I'm soaking up all these words and appreciate the lessons.

I've been staring at the canes on the Strathern site someone provided a link for but so far nothing quite the same as the canes in this weight. Though I do see a lot of similar shapes, but given the links between companies I assume that is to be expected.

I did notice that none of the weights I've looked at on that site have the 1-1-2-2 layout this one has.