After looking at a U.S. government portrait and photographic website that has wonderful official photographs and portraits of U.S. presidents and their wives, I've decided that the mystery "bearded fellow" in the St. Clair sulphide paperweight is one of the 19th-century U.S. presidents, Ulysses S. Grant.
I have to admire the ability of whoever made the sulphide at, or for, St. Clair to accurately capture Grant's crinkly eyes and puffy cheeks. It really is very nice cameo work.
I looked at the possible men, including presidents Garfield and Hayes, and there are things about both men that don't match up with the sulphide's cameo representation. So, until proven totally wrong, I'm going with Grant.
As for the mystery woman - possibilities included the Queen, Evangeline Bergstrom and Mamie Eisenhower. Based on the U.S. government site, I think the sulphide is Mamie, wife of President Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower. Here, the cameo artist did a great job capturing the pearls and the slight nod of Mamie's head. The hair is dead-on as well.
Now I really want to know who was working at St. Clair. Who made these paperweights? Who's the cameo artist? Why were some presidents and their wives selected and not others? Is there a larger series that few have seen? Where are all the paperweights? Information hints that maybe 300-400 of each weight were made. Why the heck isn't there a St. Clair glass museum? Does Joe Rice have some of these? Is there a cache of St. Clair paperweights boxed away? Where are the company papers? It seems that this sulphide work was done in the early 1970s. Why? Just another batch of questions, I guess, that may not be answered.
You can see both of these paperweights in the first post in this thread. Here are images of the actual people, Grant and Mamie, as captured and preserved in photos:
http://i3.tinypic.com/15xmx5y.jpghttp://i4.tinypic.com/15xnaes.jpg