Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: paperweights on July 13, 2015, 09:58:12 PM
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I've been asked if I can identify the butterfly paperweight over a flower with a lace ground shown here. It has an unusual signature cane. The signature cane looks familiar but I can't identify it. The current owner states that it has been in her family since at least 1940 if not earlier. The faceting may give a clue. The base shows considerable wear.
Any help will be appreciated.
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Just adding more details: The butterfly paperweight is 3" wide and 2 1/4". I've added one more picture of the base of the weight.
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Hi Allan.
Looking at the canes in the wings, I think you may find two articles in next year's PCA Bulletin that shed a little light on this. One of these articles (not mine) shows a near identical butterfly, and links it to the canes in the well known antique door knobs (maker currently unknown, as you are aware). The other article (mine and a fellow collector's) links similar canes to the 'starfish' paperweights, which are probably Belgian. This is not to say that the items themselves are all from the same source, but some of the canes appear to be common. So I think the current status is 'unknown European factory'.
Is the signature cane a pulled cane, or is the shape like a '3' drawn in blue on a white plaque?
Alan
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Thanks Alan,
Do any of the examples have a signature cane? Or is the comparison solely on the canes in the wings? I've asked for a photograph of the reverse side of the cane so we can speculate on its construction.
Allan
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Hi Allan. I don't think any of the other weights have that strange cane - but perhaps we need to look closely at them again.
Alan
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Hello. I know nothing about the paperweight, but the signature cane does look like CJ in a serif font. Both letters touching at their base. Would CJ tie in with a factory name? Don
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I looked at the possibility and consulted with the expert on signature canes, but to no avail. I also had an (extreme) thought that it might be an incomplete Riedel signature cane. The Riedel signature is a bottle with an R in it. If you imagine completing the left side of the outline above, it resembles a bottle. But I disregarded the possibility as too much of a reach. Or is it?
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If we can get a photo of the flower center cane that might be helpful too.
And interesting to note that the base is a filigree spiral and not a jumble upset muslin type.
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Any luck with the photo of the back of the sig cane or the blue flower cane?
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The owner of the weight tried to get a picture of the back and could not. She did say that it looked the same but was transposed, which I guess means it really is a pulled cane. I just asked about a picture of the flower.
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Better pictures will be posted later today. I have closeups of the flower, cane, and butterfly wings.
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New pictures of the butterfly, closeup of wing, closeup of blue flower, and reverse side of signature cane:
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Hi Allan. Thanks for the extra images.
I am pretty sure that this is from the same maker as the butterflies that are being discussed in the 2016 Bulletin. You might want to contact Paul Dunlop if you have not yet done so - I think he referred to this unknown maker as 'Factory 11' in his talk at Wheaton a few years ago. It seems from the evidence that these wing canes are from the same source as those found in the antique glass doorknobs (close-up below). A key element is the use of a 22 cog cane, and delicate feathery stardust canes.
I have a colour ground paperweight with torsade and flat base I believe to be from the same source (or at least, use canes from the same source) - image below. That reminds me of Belgian paperweights such as Val St Lambert (but I don't suggest mine is from VSL). I also have a starfish cane weight which includes 3 of the 'doorknob' or Factory 11 canes. And the starfish weights are probably Belgian, as I argue in an article for the 2016 Bulletin.
I think these are 'unknown European factory' - probably France or Belgium.
As for the signature cane....could it be a 'W' or an 'M' ?
Alan
Alan
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Thanks Alan. The owner was hoping for an ID before putting it up for sale. I've put as much time as I can into this and will leave it as unknown antique.