Topic: Can any one please help with dates ?Victorian 2 PWTS ?

[dreamticket2]

Happy New Year

I have posted 4 pics each for two of my paperweights.(8 total in album-link below)
The clear glass is greenish -darker on the Butterfly which looks as though it was constructed first tied with silver thread and miniature glass beads , crushed in the base U

ADA (mirrored!)

 Both bases have pontils - roughly broken off in the butterfly and wear scratches  which appear genuine on the bases.

http://tinyurl.com/dkjon

Is there a reference book for early PWTS- I have heard that fakes exist.
Thank you for looking
Jean
 

[KevinH]

Hi Jean,

For these types of weight, the best reference is Peter Von Brackel's, Paperweights - Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco - 1842 to Present which has over 300 pages covering the sort of "Bohemian" (or general European) weights that can usually only be attributed to a possible country.

The "memento" weights with names seem to be mostly from Bohemia / Czechoslovakia, or may be more closely identified with Thuringia or Silesia, and can date from 1900 to 1930 or so. I have seen "English" versions of these weights, made in the same style, produced or influenced by immigrant Czech workers and possibly dating to the 1960s.

The "outlined" Butterfly motif is also typically from the same areas as the "memento" wieghts and of the same period.

[dreamticket2]

Thank you KevH for this information and your rapid response- very much appreciated.
The butterfly looks as though it was assembled by hand with bits of ? tinsel and glass beads -it must have been very labour intensive to get the tiny glass beads strung and arranged in the butterfly shape!
The ADA glass has more of a lemony colour in daylight.
Will put a search out now for the book you recommend.
I am very grataful for the help this board gives an oap beginner!!
     

[KevinH]

For both weights, in simple terms, the method of making could well have been:
- lay out the upper design (name / butterfly etc) on an iron plate
- set the plate over a flame to heat the bits as needed
- pick up a gather of clear glass on the rod and form as a cylinder
- pick up coloured bits, set out on the "marver" table, by rolling and pressing the gather onto them
- add more clear glass and form into basic rounded shape
- add the upper design by pressing the top of the rounded gather on to the plate
- add another layer of clear glass
- finish to required shape

It's easy to see that the person who laid out the ADA name simply forgot to lay out the "D" backwards - it needs to be reversed in order that it shows the right way round when picked up on the main gather.

All good fun.