Topic: ysart paperweights on eBay

[bag5f]

In the last few weeks there have been a number of 'Ysart' weights all butterflies and dragonflies. They have all been rather special in design in terms of the PY canes and high quality weights. They have all had polished bases and PY canes in blue and violet complex canes with two of the butterflies having two canes. There is one new Butterfly weight on e-Bay now and a dragon fly. I have never seen these designs before and the weights are perfect and fetching very high bids of over £1,000. They are all posted by different people for the UK. Are they genuine?

[helenaJ]

I've just looked at the dragonfly paperweight on EBay and couldn't believe my eyes.    I thought I was looking at my own paperweight, except that mine has an annealling  crack through it.    Other than that (!) it is absolutely identical, except mine has a Monart glass signed label on the base P/W No. 22.

Wish mine was perfect - ho hum!!!

As for being genuine, can't speak on the others, but this one is.

Mary

[tropdevin]

***

Hi.

All the high price ones looked genuine to me. They are known - but not common - designs. I suspect that the people who own them have seen the high prices that they are fetching at the moment, and have decided to cash in.  So it is likely the supply will dry up soon...and then what will happen to the prices?

Alan

[Frank]

There will always be more buyers for these so prices will continue stable. Only the fakes episode hurt Ysart weight values but as these are well documented now they recovered AND with Mahoney's book now available they will stay stable. Large collections always create a stir in availability when they get broken up. But they also stimulate desire as people see what he was capable of.

[KevinH]

There is, in my opinion, a distortion in the current market price for various Ysart weights. This is due to a few buyers with available funds competing against each other. Also, over the past year, a number of Ysart weights, including basic concentric designs, have been offered in auction with what I consider to be very high estimates, perhaps also as a result of a few people being willing to pay higher than normal prices.

This sort of distortion is not new and some years ago I competed against another collector for a Salvador Ysart concentric with a "Y" cane. At the time, such weights (which were regarded as rare because of the "Y" cane) were normally changing hands at around £300. The weight I bought had an early Vasart label to the base and (assuming the label was original to the weight at the time of making) this proved the use of the "Y" cane in the Ysart Brothers (Vasart) years.

With my interest in these things, I decided to submit a bid for the labelled "Y" weight that would hopefully see off all competition. I won it at around £700. But after that, any "Y" weight, even those with some poor quality features was being offered at anything up to the £700 mark I had set!

Hopefully the market prices will settle again at a reasonable level and I will be able to buy a few more Ysart weights to fill the gaps in my own collection.

[SophieB]

Hi,

I agree with Kevin that there is unusual activity on the PY weight market at the moment. While I may understand the high prices for some unusual Paul Ysart weights (see the multiple canes butterflies for instance), I have been surprised again and again in the last six months at the prices achieved by some rather more common weights: for instance, last week a Harland flowerhead and spokes with H cane and PY sticker made an incredible £587 on Ebay (see item 300825496792). I doubt these inflated prices are sustainable though... Still it is nice for the sellers while it lasts. As for me, I will wait for the market to 'settle down again at a reasonable level' (not too long I hope).

SophieB

[Frank]

All your fault Kevin!  But seriously it is too, simply because you are one of those that provided the means for collectors to have confidence in recognition. 20 years ago Vasart weights were 5 to 20 pounds.... Paul Ysart finest weights topped a thousand even then. That was down to Paul Jokelson.

[KevinH]

Not all my doing, Frank!

Some folks got together and published a book in 1990, before I added any info and pics on the subject.