Topic: Paperweight id please. ID = 2 Paul Ysart and 1 Vasart

[KevinH]

Hi Sophie,

... I own two miniature fish weights from the Harland period (with an H cane) which have a pontil scar each. So not all weights were finished in the usual clean manner.

Yes, I agree - as I said: "I have since seen a variety of small pontil scars on PY weights from all of his main periods of making!"

The thing about Mary's weight is that the full "finishing marks" cover a large area, when also taking account of the rough markings around the central pontil scar and the long radial stress lines, these marks being formed from the "cutting in" process before cracking off the iron. And the use of the mottled colour ground is not something I have noted in Paul Ysart's later periods.

Are the finsihing marks on your Harland weight "large and rough"? Or are they the quite tidy, smaller cracking off marks that I have seen on others (from both the Harland and the Caithness periods)?

[SophieB]

Hi Kevin,

Sorry, for the delay in replying but I have been ill. It also explains my confusing/confused earlier message. Never write a GMB reply with temperature!!!

To answer your question: the pontil marks are quite different for each miniature weight.... One is quite clean with few radial stress lines but the other is much less tidy with more and deeper marks...

Also, I have a 1930s Ysart concentric (I emailed you pictures of it before the summer) the pontil of which is terribly tidy (a small scar and no radial stress lines) when compared to other Ysart I have seen.

I am not sure that this will help dating the weight accurately though. :pb:

SophieB

[KevinH]

Sorry to hear about you being ill, Sophie. Hope you are now fit and healthy again.

I am not sure that this will help dating the weight accurately though.

I agree. Although I can make some reasonable assessments about age by examining types of base finish, there are so many variations which appear across so many years that it gets quite confusing. It is only by taking all the evidence together that I can make a best guess - and sometimes I find myself in complete disagreement with some of the long-standing ideas.