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Hi Nick
Another interesting one is John Bedford's from 1968, issued shortly before Paul Hollister's book. Old paperweight books fascinate me - especially the changing story of attributions, and the tales of mystery and imagination that some contain. It is instructive to see how and when the 'antique Whitefriars' myth arose, and when the Russian plaques were first called 'Mount Washington'. I think a desire to sell items to buyers, rather than give accurate attributions, might have played a part.
Another issue that interests me is when Bacchus paperweights are first referred to as having 'pale and pastel colours'. Apart from being inaccurate (there are plenty of vivid coloured Bacchus weights), it seems to have first appeared in print in the mid 20th century - that is, 100 years after they were made. So I think that the originator (whoever it might have been) may have decided that certain pale coloured weights were Bacchus, and attributed them as such. Evangeline Bergstrom had a Bacchus weight, but she just called it 'Stourbridge' - so I suspect that the name Bacchus was not being used by collectors at that time (late 1930s).
I keep thinking that I should pull all this together, and write an article on it. I could also include how the commonly held views of paperweight history since 1845 (as expressed by authors in the mid to late 20th century) are over-simplified to the point of being inaccurate and misleading. It is just not true that few paperweights were made between 1860 and the 1950s, when Paul Jokelson started the 'paperweight revival'.
Alan
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