Hello Ross,
in 1978 an Exhibition of glass made in Styria, the Koralpen-region (Austria) was held in Eibiswald. In the catalog, there are some black/white illustrations shown, attributing this type of weight to "Vordersdorf and other places". The glassmaking area stretched along the borderline to Carinthia and Slovenia, covering the Koralpe and Pohorje mountains for a long time since the 16th century.
The Vordersdorf factory ended before or shortly after WW I and the weights were made presumably between 1880 and 1914, thought to be friggers and gifts for relatives and friends, and for marriages- some also as "beer money" in local inns. The exact type is also shown in the "Kloepfer-Museum" in Eibiswald (Styria).
Some successors - still making glass- can be found in Bärnbach (f.i. Stoelzle Oberglas, bottles) and Köflach/Styria,
an area where glass making and coal mining went side by side, when excessive wood firing was running out.
These weights were also called "crowns" with 1, 2 and up to 5 storeys, but crowns with a ribbon bow insertion instead of or along with the layers also exist. They were also called "glass maker's pride", because they afforded much skill to get the layers and bubbles in decoratively...
Later weights from the 1920ies to the 1980ies mostly show spatter flowers with icepick centers in all variations.
Similar weights were also made in Chenee/Belgium, mostly white and pink predominant. Kind regards from Austria, e.m.
Topic: I am assuming this to be continental European but have no real idea. (Read 1452 times)
