Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: redbirdrose on December 21, 2010, 01:21:44 AM
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I have an egg shaped millefiori 4 inch paperweight that I don't know the history of. The bottom is etched Pauly & Co. Venezia. Just wondering if anyone would know the age and possible worth.
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This is the etching on the bottom.
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This is another view of my paperweight. It does have quite a few bubbles around the flowers. Just curious to know the value as I picked it up at a Goodwill store. Thanks!!!
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Mod: Welcome to the GMB. I have merged your posts into one. To add extra info to your own post just press the reply button. Also, are you aware that you can add up to four photos per post?
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Pauly & C. have a long and winding history in Murano. They have made their own glass and marketed glass made by other companies. This makes it difficult to know exactly who made something. If it is signed Pauly & C. with no other signature, it is just considered to be Pauly & C. unless someone knows better. I do not know the age of your paperweight. Knowing a little about some of the Pauly glass (very little, unfortunately), I would guess it is late 60s or 70s. I have the feeling your pw was made for Pauly by another company from the looks of the pw, but I don't want to over-guess this one.
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I don't know what the value would be outside the UK, but such weights (along with many Murano paperweights, actually) do not seem to attract very high prices here. Charity shops usually ask a few pounds for them, and they only seem to sell at auction in job lots. I have seen some of the neater examples sell on eBay for £20 -£30, but most sell well below that. If you look at 'Murano paperweights' and 'completed items' (link to search results) (http://completed.shop.ebay.co.uk/Glass-/50693/i.html?LH_Complete=1&rt=nc&Glassware%2520Type=Paperweights&_nkw=murano&_adv=1&_catref=1&_dmd=1&_dmpt=UK_Art_Glass&_fln=1&_in_kw=1&_ipg=50&_oexkw=&_okw=murano&_sc=1&_since=15&_sop=3&_ssov=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282&_udhi=&_udlo=&_userid=rosismum) then you can see that only 2 out of 125 sold for more than £20.
Alan
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I have to add a cautionary note to using eBay for values. Many of the eBay customers buy to resell, so are not willing to pay much. Some of the glass pieces show up so often on eBay that I think we should give them names. Buyers often buy what is popular at the moment because they plan to resell quickly. This creates an eBay economy that doesn't reflect the world at large. A pw that sells poorly on eBay may bring a good price in a brick-and-mortar shop in the USA. People like pretty things. There are two other things that make bid amounts on eBay difficult to interpret. 1) Many of the things bought on eBay have undescribed damage. Often people such as myself keep bid amounts lower in anticipation of damage, particularly when a seller is vague. 2) Shipping for pws are usually much higher than the actual cost of shipping. It's not unusual to see shipping cost $12-15 for a 3" pw in the USA. They cost $6-8 to ship normally. Bids take into account the padding of the shipping costs.
When I try to find the value of a piece online, I do not include eBay in my searches. There are too many variables on eBay that go into the bid -- e.g. feedback of seller, bad auction timing, poor listing quality, expectation of damage, padded shipping. I prefer to value a piece on the quality of the workmanship and the rarity of the piece.
This is not saying anything bad about eBay. It is a great place to get good bargains. But it is an economy unto itself with inherent characteristics that keep the bids lower than the real world. This is good for retailers because they buy that $20 pw online and sell it in their b&m store for $50 fairly quickly. In my way of thinking, the value would be the b&m value (although as the world goes online more, this is becoming less the case).
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Hi Anita. I certainly agree that there is often a significant difference between eBay prices and shop prices - but the latter are sometimes hopelessly optimistic, rooted in the market of 10 years ago pre-internet, when the dealers could buy certain types of weight cheap in Europe and sell dear in the US (and vice versa for other types of weight). I got stung by dealers who were doing this when I first collected, naively believing the prices that the (notionally reputable) bricks and mortar shops told me were 'the going rate'. Some of the pieces would sell now for maybe half what I paid....caveat emptor, I suppose. But the global market place that has been enabled by the internet (only in part by eBay) has helped level out the playing field, and show up as incorrect some of the wilder claims about 'market prices' and the 'going rate'.
I agree wholeheartedly about the condition of weights on eBay - it varies wildly - as it does at major auction houses even. There is no substitute for picking one up and looking at it!
Alan