Topic: Pedestal paperweight damaged curious to know what it is though please

[flying free]

This  pedestal weight is very badly damaged with an internal fracture, I assume an annealing fracture, so pictures have been difficult to take clearly.  It has a round facet at the top and measures 7" tall.  It weighs 2lb.  It has four things that hang down from the top layer each with a bubble in the top of them (plus the odd random bubble near the bottom of the design) the top layer falls onto the bottom layer and the bottom layer is suspended in the clear glass rather than being set on a ground.  I hope I've described it using the right words (obviously 'things' is a technical phrase  )
I'm curious to know something about it.
What the design is called please?  is it a harlequin or a fountain or something?
Is it made from what would be called 'frit', it appears to be little 'jellies' of glass rather than canes and some appear to have aventurine in.  
It was sold on eBay as Murano - is it a Murano piece?  Who made it?
And lastly date wise, when would this have been made?  It doesn't seem new to me.
Thank you for your time which is much appreciated  :sun:
m

[Derek]

Hi

These are known as stem paperweights or pedestal paperweights. They were mostly made in France, Belgium, Germany and Bohemia in the early 20th century. The design is a fountain and yes its made using frit. The presence of Adventurine usually points to Murano but in this case, the design and the frit makes me favour Belgium as its origin.

What do the rest of you think??

Best regards and a very happy Christmas to all

Derek

[tropdevin]

***
I agree with Derek...Belgium / Alsace. I do not think it is Murano - which is probably good news. There is much more run of the mill Murano about than Belgian or Alsace..

Alan

[KevinH]

It may be worth noting that the basic design within the paperweight part has been given a variety of names. Whether the names given were maker-based, company-based or author-based is not at all clear.

Peter Von Brackel's book, Paperweights Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, 1842 to Present [English version] published 1999, mainly refers to such items as "5-bubble stem paperweight with x polychrome bit levels (x being the number of levels).

Other earlier authors tended to simply call these items "Stemmed paperweight", or "Mantel ornament" but sometimes with a basic description such as "bubble and frit decoration".

Although not usually seen as a stemmed item, the same basic design when made by Paul Ysart was called "Harlequin" (single layer), "Double Harlequin" (two layers) and "Triple Harlequin" (three layers). He also produced a design called "Fountain" which was not the same as mentioned above - it had distinct filigrana arms looping down to a single ground (either of solid colour or coloured chips) and with a central air bubble and air bubbles on the downward sweep of the filigrana. His father Salvador also produced some similar items but the "fountain" design is usually referred to (by collectors) as a "carousel".

[flying free]

Thank you all very much for your help which is much appreciated. I found it difficult to find very much information at all about these weights on the net and my books don't have any of them in there at all.   Kev thank you for the explanations and especially about the names of the designs- I had become confused about whether a double harlequin was the standard name for these or was the name only given to PY weights although I could see it wasn't a PY weight.
I had found one identified as a Meisenthal weight but didn't want to say just in case, and the stem on mine is different to the stem on this one,  could mine be Meisenthal possibly then?  Although I've read they stopped making weights in the early 20th c ? if I remember rightly and the one here is dated late 1800's.
link here -
http://www.poulbenn.com/Sulfure-Presse-Papier_63/Perruquier-dhomme-en-sufure-sur-pied-vers-1880-Meisenthal_2731.html
Merry Christmas  :sn: and thank you once again.
m

[Wuff]

When I scrolled through the poulbenn site I came across
Bohemian art glass paperweight showing a flower of white clover made during the 1960's
and
Bohemian Art Glass paperweight showing blue and yellow ribbon flowers made during the 1970's.
What do others make of these attributions?

[tropdevin]

***

Hi Wuff

They are both Chinese paperweights - I have no doubt at all about that (and nor have you either, I suspect ).

Allan

[Wuff]

... (and nor have you either, I suspect ).

No - not really .

Should we inform the seller? I often send corrections to ebay sellers, but have given up telling anyone their weights are Chinese: many people willingly accept that their Murano is e.g. Perthshire .... but Chinese? Noone wants to trust that information.

[flying free]

oops - that is why I raised this particular piece on that site.  I had no idea whether or not that id was correct. 
So, by the way you are responding, do I take it that the id of the pedestal weight may also not be accurate?
m

[Wuff]

..., do I take it that the id of the pedestal weight may also not be accurate?

I didn't want to imply that: several attributions are definitely correct. This type of stem weight was (according to books on my shelf) made in Meisenthal - amongst many other places. So this attribution may well be correct - my knowledge of this type of weight is insufficient to make a clear statement in this case.

I have severe doubts about some of the "German" flower paperweights, however.