Topic: So who's this by?

[Gowdod]

Now who's this by? I bought this today.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260824124058&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT#ht_1049wt_932

Has a French look to it, possibly English. Any thoughts from you Paperweight fans?

Kind Regards

Andrew

[tropdevin]

***

I was watching that item, and was a bit puzzled by it.  Old English is a strong possibility. I had ruled out French - I could not tie the canes to any particular factory - but was toying with the thought it might just be Belgian.

I have had a couple of weights that were similar, and the canes had similar structure. One looked like a cut down bottle stopper. They both came from sources in the Birmingham area, so on balance I would vote for an English origin, from one of the less well known and as yet unidentified factories.

I assume your paperweight is made of lead glass? What is the base finish like?

Alan

[Gowdod]

Alan,

I only got it today, waiting for it to be posted. I need to have a good look at that central cane, the cogs have 8 spokes. How would this be described as a 3 row concentric? I've had my Bob Hall book out and it definately has an early English feel. How about it being a Baccus? That'd be fun. Cheers   Andrew

[tropdevin]

***

Hi Andrew

I have posted before (here, I think) that whilst Bob Hall's book is the best reference book that we have for Old English paperweights, the research for it is 10 to 20 years old, and it has a number of significant errors. For example, about 20 of the paperweights in the Bacchus chapter are not Bacchus.  And there is a lot of fairly wild speculation about 'early' and 'late' Bacchus, and a completely mistaken assumption that any weight with a Queen's Head cane is from the Bacchus stable. And the errors about Gillinder working at Bacchus.....

But if you were planning to sell a lot of Old English weights, perhaps you might talk up the Bacchus connections, with attributions such as 'early Bacchus', 'later Bacchus' and 'possibly unique Bacchus'......?

I agree with you about the 'Old English feel' of your weight, but that is what I first felt when I bought the footed weight below a few years back (which Bob suggested was 'later Bacchus'). Now I suspect it is Belgian.

Alan