Topic: Clichy? That's one man's strong opinion so far.

[Leni]

Somehow I think the answer to it is in the white star canes with the green centres as well as the roses.

Those are very strange, aren't they?  :shock:  :?

As for the 'rabbits', well, perhaps they do look more like tadpoles!   :lol:  :roll:  :wink:

[dfernbach]

OMIGOSH  :shock:  :shock:

I tried getting a better photo of the canes from the bottom of the weight, and I think that they are, or at least could be construed to be crouching rabbits.  (Do rabbits actually crouch?)  

Anyway, rather than try to show the better detail through tinypic, I'm e-mailing full size photos to you, Simone and Larry Selman.  Maybe you and Simone have a better or at least faster way of getting good detailed pictures into the message board.

Should I be getting excited?  :?  :?

[Leni]

Should I be getting excited?  :?  :?

I always get excited about mystery weights like this!  Particularly ones with roses  :shock:  I love 'em!    :wink:  

Oooh!  The thrill of the 'chase'!   :lol:

[Simone]

Hi Leni, it's the antique New England ones that have the running rabbit cane. (It would be so easy to say that with the r's sounding like w's).  :lol:

Early Baccarat also made roses, but they were large and very similar to Clichy. Also some antique Italian weights had roses, but I'm yet to find the white star canes with the green in.

[dfernbach]

Well that was fun!

Let's see, I started out with a Boho, it got promoted to Clichy, took a side trip to St. Mande and Pantin, and has now returned to its roots in Bohemia!
At one point we almost booked a side trip to Beijing with a stop at Boston.
 :lol:

How did we miss Italy and the British Isles?

[Simone]

Hi Don,

It's definitely Bohemian, like I thought in the first place, I found pictures of weights with those little rose canes, both in pink and white - and also the white star canes with green bits in.

We could have gone around the world in 80 days if it would have carried on!  :shock:

[Leni]

I am beginning to be as agitated by the blanket use of 'Bohemian' as I am by the use of 'Chinese'  :lol:  :roll:  Now I'm going to want to locate just where in 'Bohemia' all those canes were made!   :roll:

Can I ask where you found the pictures?  And what is your opinion of the 'rabbit' / tadpoles now you've seen the larger base pictures?   :shock:  :?

I have been searching my Kules and my Jargstorf.  Which books do you use?

[dfernbach]

A couple of days ago I met Alan Kaplan at Leo Kaplan Ltd, and Jack Feingold at Gem Antiques - both NYC paperweight dealers with large collections and years of experience.

Neither was able to give a definitive answer on this weight or even put forth an educated guess.  Neither denied the Bohemian theory, but neither seemed willing to accept it either?

I decided to put it out on e-bay with everything I knew and everything that had been guessed.  If you're interested it's e-bay Item number: 7406491723.

I've had a number of inquiries from people, but none were willing to offer any information.  After just a day and a half listing, there are LOTS of people signed up to watch this weight (almost 100 already!).

I suspect that everyone out there has his/her own theory and is unwilling to share it!  :cry:

I know the current high bidder - he's a Parisian who has in the past only seemed interested in French weights, so I don't think he's bought in to the Bohemian theory!

Apology to Simone and Leni - I completely forgot to mention the tadpole theory.  I think I'll leave that one alone.

Leni - When will we all be invited to your place for some wabbit stew?

[dfernbach]

The paperweight was won by a gentleman from Pennsylvania (actually, he's an attorney, so my assumption that he's a gentleman is based on the fact that he paid me a fairly good amount of money).

Once I was paid and he had received the paperweight, I asked him for any comments / opinions he might be willing to provide on its origins.

As you all know by now, I tend to go on and on when writing, so I was somewhat taken aback by his terse (to say the least response):

I believe that it is St. Mande.

I don't know anything about the buyer's expertise, although Simone pointed out that he has some history of buying paperweights and they generally seem to be worthwhile pieces - but as he is a paying customer, I for one will accept his determination.

Gee, I wish he would have said something about cwouching wabbits or tadpoles or the like.