Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: alexander on June 24, 2008, 11:18:32 PM
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Hi, I received this the other day, a tiny (1"1/2 or 4 cm wide, a little less than 1" or just above 2cm tall) paperweight.
I thought it would be by a Scottish maker since it originated in Scotland, but the ribbons don't really look Scottish to me.
It "feels" old. It appears to have been glued onto something as there was glue residue, the small pontil is broken off,
raised slightly so that it doesn't sit flat on an even surface. No grinding or polishing there.
The ribbon basket is partly on the outside so that I can see and feel the canes.
One cane wanted to be special and is almost completely on the surface at it's end.
The canes themselves seem very well made.
Any help greatly appreciated :)
Thanks
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Is there an air bubble in the center - ie. is it a blown piece?
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No bubbles, solid glass.
It's a regular paperweight execept for the canes not being cased, and it's size.
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The twist style kinda reminds me of John Deacons. Could it be an experimental piece? Perhaps it was a cabinet knob.
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...side view? Initially I thought it may be a modified stopper but it doesnt seem to be...
Cheers,
KarelM
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I saw something like this on a dealer's stall a couple of years ago - can't remeber where. At the time I thought 'John Deacons'.
Alan.
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Mike Hunter is also a possibility. Both are easily checked.
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It's a regular paperweight execept for the canes not being cased, and it's size.
Strikes me that given this unfinished state, it is a standard crown weight at mid point in the manufacture -. ie initial gather of glass done, ribbons picked up, twist done, and then stopped - so that the next layer of glass that would cover the ribbons and provide the outside has not been put on.
It does look very much like an unfinished John Deacons crown weight.
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On a further point, I recall many years ago at the Selkirk shop (in Peter Holmes' time) they had small weights of a similar size and profile to this which were being sold as little trinkets. I do not recall seeing one like this but is quite feasible.
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Hi Folks,
This is what what is cut off during the crown being made! It ends up in the bin, It has been known for customers in the workshop to admire this sort of thing on the floor beside the glassmakers chair and ask if they could take it. I remember being a young boy and collecting these every day on the floor.... I had hundreds of them to play with!!! They usually end up cracking as the aren't put in the kiln, just dropped on the floor! Its not something we would sell, I couldn't say if it was from our workshop. There is and has been many factory's where this type of piece could of come from.
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As a kid I would have loved to have things like that to play with. Better than marbles! My fascination with glass whatzits started very young. It's too bad that these 'crown nubbins' tend to split. They are really cute.
I really love what's coming out of your family's studio. My last few major purchases have been of the Deacons kind :)
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Craig
Thanks for the info. Am trying to imagine what that operation would look like.
Collectors are like magpies. We treasure the little odds and sods - bits of cane, bits of lampwork -that we have come across. My daughter still has the swan that you gave her which she found whilst you took her around your garden and I still have the dahlia that I picked up from the rockery, and it's special because of the circumstances of its acquisition.
This is the sort of thing that I would pick up as a curiosity if I could.
And thinking further about the similar ones we have - we didnt buy them from Selkirk - Peter H gave them to my daughter when I bought a weight from him.
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Wow - thanks a bunch :)
I've been unable to get online much in the past few days so haven't responded before now.
It's even more special in a sense :)
Funny thing is - it's been sitting in front of me and I keep finding myself playing with it :)
Thanks again for everyone's input.