Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass => Topic started by: Lustrousstone on February 24, 2008, 06:13:55 PM
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At least I think they're paperweights. They look like books but they seem too small and unstable to be bookends. They measure 3.5 x 2.25 and 1.25/1.125 inches deep (one is thicker than the other). They are definitely cut. Anybody got any thoughts about who? I'm assuming second half 19th century.
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Could they be knife rests Christine?
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No, don't think so. Too wide
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Hi, Boston & Sandwich made similarly shaped and sized book paperweights,
I don't know if they made vaseline glass tho. There are two examples in the book
"The Boston & Sandwich and New Englad Glass Companies" ISBN 0-933756-26-7
One of the examples is very close in size to these two.
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Thank you, I think they did make uranium glass.. I'll check
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Yes, they are vaseline/uranium glass. You have a real find there! (doubly so with finding a pair!)
I have always believed they were just paperweights. I have one also, and mine is marked in silver with the word SOUVENIR. There is also remnants of silver on the border of the little cuttings. It is about the same size, just a little taller and a little thinner. You can see the script SOUVENIR on the reverse side, bottom right corner, on the large flat area (or rather, you might make out some script, and that is what it says). There are large crosses on each side, sort of like 'sunburst crosses'. There is no fancy cutting on the 'pages' portion, that is the sunburst cross reflecting off of the back side through the bending optics nature of glass. The binding has some fine cutting on it.
(http://www.vaselineglass.org/souvenirbook.jpg)
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edited to add: I have always been under the assumption that my SOUVENIR BOOK paperweight was Bohemian/Czechoslovakia (dependent on what the name of the region was when it was produced). I have no proof, just a general impression. The 'book' p-weights made at Boston and Sandwich are few and far between and those people who have extensively studied B&S know their stuff and when one of these little guys shows up in an auction, the price goes through the roof, primarily because it IS B&S. I probably got mine waaaaay under value. I found it on ebay, no one else jumped on it, and I got it for $35 USD. I have seen them go for $200 when they do show up, but I would not rule out glass houses on continental europe on these pieces.
dave
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Hi Dave, Are you saying mine are B&S or that they're not?
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I am saying that I 'THINK' mine is continental europe, and there is a good chance yours are also the same.
I have found other pieces that were souvenir glass items made in vaseline glass when tourists went to 'the mineral baths' or just taking holiday. The pieces from Boston and Sandwich are so few and far between that I think they were made for personal gifts, not a general production item. With me having a book that says souvenir on the piece, it tells me that it was a regular 'for sale item'. added to all that.....the ones shown in the BARLOW AND KAISER books are very very tiny. The book shows 12 different versions, some only fragments, AND THE BIGGEST one is 2" tall. All are very plain, very little decoration to them, very little cutting, etc. one is shown in canary that is 1 18" tall.
the narrative from the book: "Unlike the larger cut book paperweights, little books were not a commercial product. Glass cutters used pieces of broken annealed glass, cut them into rectqangular blanks and then made the cuts that would turn them into little books" BARLOW & KAISER, photo #3366, A GUIDE TO SANDWICH GLASS: WITCH BALLS, CONTAINERS AND TOYS, copyright 1987 by Barlow and Kaiser.
no large ones were shown in the above listed book.
dave
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Hi, just to muddy the waters a bit ; )
From the same book I mentioned above, which shows two pictures of different books by B&S.
Page 7 relating to fig1.6:
"Fancy cut glass proved to be an important product for both companies, and they took advantage of it's popularity to create book type paperweights. "
Of these pictured in the book is one measuring 3.5" by 2.1/4" by 1.1/8", made by glass cutter Harry Packwood
for Minnie Breakley Packwood.
This does seem to indicate they only made them in clear crystal.
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Alexander, can you send me a scan of the picture please. My email is on the left. My paperweights seem to be lead crystal, just in uranium!
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Christine: any glass (vaseline or otherwise) that is deep cut (not just wheel cut on the surface) is going to be leaded glass. The soda-lime formula is just to brittle to cut it.
Dave