Topic: Letter Weights

[flying free]

Kev

I found this reference to 'mille fiori presse-papiers' in the reports of the juries from the Great Exhibition 1851.
Does 'presse-papiers' translate directly as paper weight?

Click here
You may need to scroll down for page 528 right hand side

It also mentions hundreds of thousands being sold.

[KevinH]

Yes, presse-papiers = paperweights

I have amended your link entry for a search on "presse-papiers" rather than "maes" - but even with that, it seems to now want to start at page 521.

It is an interesting entry and I immediately wondered if the jurors had foreseen the modern influences of mass production from China! But the main reference seems to be to a generic "mille fiori style of work" of which paperweights were a part and were an adaption of the "style of work".