Although I know less than nothing about p/ws, feel certain the answer to your question is no, but can imagine that your suggestion is because this item might date to the C19 when using butterfly wing colour for decoration was commonplace.
The Victorians were heavily into using butterfly wings to provide the colour for tea trays and other under glass objects, and their choice of species was usually one of the iridescent blues found on the tropical morphos. The wing colours of many species are fugitive to light, although with some of the exotic blue species perhaps less so, but so many times when insect wings are seen in an antique situation most of the original colour has faded.
It should be possible with a fairly high powered hand lens to look through the glass at the fabric/structure of the colour, and if butterfly wings have been used you will easily see the shape of the wing scales that are responsible for the colours on all butterflies and moths.
As a matter of interest what sort of date might this item be - 1805?
Topic: ship paperweight, any idea? (Read 1272 times)
