Glass Message Board
Glass Identification - Post here for all ID requests => Glass Paperweights => Topic started by: gleaming on October 19, 2017, 02:57:02 PM
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Hi All,
Does anyone know the maker of this mysterious moody paperweight? It has a silver base, so no clues from the base.
Thanks!!
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I noticed KevinH's good suggestion to use the Picresize site to improve the photos, and I am adding a few larger photos of the mysterious moody unknown paperweight. The canes remind me of coral.
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Silly question but the base looks a little bit French. If it is silver have you checked for a very small Minerva mark?
I have a large piece of French silver that is marked but the mark is incredibly tiny and difficult to find.
Can you put a photo on of the base please? curious to see the design on it.
m
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Thank you, flying free, for mentioning the silver base. I have never seen a paperweight with a silver base before. It has a maker's mark of SL. I have tried to capture the three imprints that would indicate the location of the maker, the grade of silver and the year. Unfortunately these three marks are so very tiny that I would need a higher power magnification to decipher what they are. If you can shed any light on this I would be greatly appreciative.
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sorry I don't know much about silver.
The page I looked at seemed to say that the vast majority of French silver found today was made after 1838 and only carries two marks: Silver guarantee and Maker's mark.
So that might rule out France for the silver.
m
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Thank you, Flying Free, for checking on the French silver marks. I did find a British silversmith named Simon Levy who in the first half of the 19th century used the SL hallmark, but I don't know if this is the same maker.
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The middle imprint looks like the Hibernia mark used for Dublin hallmarked silver, the other two marks are not clear enough to determine what they are. Is the one on the left a harp by any chance? If so, it is silver that was hallmarked in Dublin, the mark on the right will be a date letter.
If you have a camera with a macro function, you might be able to a clearer photo of the marks.
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Thank you, User9318, for this good information about Dublin silver hallmarks.
Lacking a macro lens, I used a set of diopter lens, but even combining them all, I couldn't get a closer look at the hallmarks. I hope to order some extension tubes to increase the magnification.
That is a good tip about the Dublin hallmarks.
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The silver and the glass are not neccessarily made together, the silver base could have been added at a later date by an owner rather than the manufacturer.
I don't think your weight has canes in it, it looks much more like a spatter decoration.
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Thank you, Chopin-liszt for this good observation that the silver base could have been added at a later date. That is certainly true.
From looking closely at the paperweight, I would say that they probably are individually made blue, red and pink canes rather than splatter or frit work. However, they are not millefiori canes. There must have been another technique for making these canes that I am unfamiliar with. Where you can see the bottom of a few blue and red canes, the bottom of the canes are white.
Thank you again for your good observations.
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It's just something we always have to be aware of when it comes to glass with metal attachments, it's not my own original thought at all.
It can get quite complicated, because there are collectors of particular metal hallmarks, so they can end up making a bit of glass some sort of silly price, just for the metal bits.
Thus taking the glass away from Glass collectors. >:(
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Thank you Chopin-Listz for your "notes" on this topic. You make a good point that the silver base should be considered separately from the paperweight. The silver base appears to be one of two unusual traits of this paperweight, the other being the unusual canes.
Maybe some glass artists on this message-board might have some ideas on how these unusual canes might be made. It seems to me that each cane would almost have to be made individually.
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I don't believe the silver base is a repair. I have had two paperweights with the same base treatment, but need to find pictures or find the one I still own.
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Thank you, Allan. I knew that there must be some other examples out there somewhere with the silver base. I will appreciate seeing your paperweights with the silver base.
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Thanks to the remarkable help of Phil (silvermakermarks) on the Silver Forum at 925-1000.com, who identified the mark on the paperweight base as a Sheffield Hallmark along with the Britannia and Letter L marks, I followed up by contacting the Sheffield Assay Office for identification of the SL maker's mark.
The wonderfully helpful Emma at the Sheffield Assay Office provided the following information:
"I have managed to trace the Sponsors Mark SL – This is the mark for Scotcade Limited, who were based in Shropshire, they registered with the Sheffield Assay Office in 1979 and used this mark until 1990. The piece is marked with the Tudor Rose for Sheffield , the Figure of Britannia 958 parts of silver / 1000 p[arts and the date letter L = 1985."
I found an address for the former Scotcade Ltd:
Scotcade Ltd.
33-34 High Street
BRIDGNORTH SHROPSHIRE WV16 4HG
ENGLAND
UNITED KINGDOM
This solves the mystery of the creator of the silver paperweight base ... now all I have to do is find the maker of the paperweight!
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What we now need are pics from Allan Port (paperweights), as per Reply 12 - if he can find the images of the two weights he had. Hopefully there will be clearer (less distorted) canes for consideration.
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I haven't found my paperweight or the images. There is a similar query on a vase with a similar treatment on the J.C.C. Glass Collectors Group on Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/220575688006436/permalink/1674459482618042/?comment_id=1684302078300449 (https://www.facebook.com/groups/220575688006436/permalink/1674459482618042/?comment_id=1684302078300449)
The information there is that a company named Sileda Ltd based in North Wales used to make something similar. They used to buy blanks from Sanders and Wallace and silver plate them. The comment was from Andrew Sanders of Sanders and Wallace.
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Continuing my thoughts from the above post (I could not modify it), I wonder if the mark is SILEDA LIMITED and not Scotcade Ltd. Or maybe they are affiliated closely enough. Sileda was incorporated in CEFN-Y-BEDD CLYWD which is in North East Wales. The Corning Museum of Glass has a catalog of their wares. The description is as follows: "Glassware is handmade in studio glassworks in the British Isles, then ornamented with fine silver in Sileda's workshops in North Wales. Note, that the bud vases on leaflet 1 were made in West Virginia.
Includes vases, perfumes, atomizers, powder boxes, silver deposit ware."
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Thanks so much, Allan, for this good information on the Sileda silver!
A quick internet search did turn up exquisite examples of glassware ornamented in silver by Sileda, which does sound more likely than Scotcade, the distributor of radios and such. Does anyone know of the likely British Isles glass works that may have provided the glassware for the Sileda silversmiths?
I hope that it is OK to present these links for other examples of glasswork ornamented with silver by Sileda :
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/27/4d/56/274d56e5d2c8dbb5b7526341f8d38924.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/236x/ca/dd/8d/cadd8d951cb869b6037222f38164d717.jpg
https://cdn.globalauctionplatform.com/33c88eec-1b9e-4630-8193-a4ec009fb747/d00206da-db1c-4941-97fb-0c0ad39a51cb/original.jpg
http://www.passionforperfume.com/graphics/Rona/rg605.jpg
I saw one expired on-line auction listing that listed a Selkirk glass bottle ornamented with Sileda silverwork:
"Sileda Limited traded during the 1990s. Handmade glass pieces from studio glassworks throughout the British Isles were ornamented with silver in Sileda's workshops in North Wales. The base of the glass bottle is marked 'Selkirk Glass Scotland 1989'.
The silver overlay is hallmarked as Britannia silver for Sheffield 1994, and marked with the maker's initials 'SL' for Sileda Limited."
http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Sileda-perfume-scent-bottle-Selkirk-Glass-hallmarked-Britannia-silver-overlay-/201021294145
Thanks again!
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The only paperweight that I have seen that uses similar canes is made by Ron Schuster in Allan Port's great collection:
http://paperweights.com/paperweights/images2/pw2982.jpg
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Ron Schuster was extremely kind to respond by e-mail that he was not the creator of this paperweight.
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Per the facebook discussion of Sanders and Wallace work with Sileda: Andrew Sanders was extremely kind to respond by e-mail that he was not the maker of this paperweight. He stated that he made perfume bottles and vases for Sileda Ltd. but no weights.
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Many thanks to to the sharp eye of Allan Port for his identification of Sileda Ltd. as the correct maker of the silver work on the paperweight. The very helpful Phil over at the 925-1000.com silver forum received this confirmation from Emma at the Sheffield Assay Office:
"Having had a good look through over 30 files who all used SL in their sponsor mark, I have formed the following conclusions:
I believe I have mis[-attributed] the [mark], I believe it is for Sileda, they had nine individual punches registered with us from 10th December 1980 to 2000. Some are incredibly small but their main mark is a rectangle with the clipped indent top and bottom of the rectangle between the SL.
Scotcade were using a rectangle same size to the above mark but with no indentations.
I do hope that this resolves the enquiries and apologies if I have mis[-attributed] a mark, let hope this rectifies the issue. If I can be of further assistance please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Kind regards
Emma"
Since some Sileda Ltd. references note their working with glass items made by Selkirk, I wonder if perhaps Selkirk is the maker of the paperweight.
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Good followup on the silver mark. Thank you.
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... I wonder if perhaps Selkirk is the maker of the paperweight.
What used to be Selkirk Glass is now: Scottish Borders Art Glass (http://www.scottishbordersartglass.com/) Their contact link generates an email window and I am sure that Peter or Andrew Holmes will be pleased to confirm if they used canes of that type.
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Thank you, KevinH! I sent Peter Holmes a few photos of the paperweight and will let everyone know if I hear back. I certainly appreciate the really helpful and knowledgeable people on this site!
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After a long delay, I am able to post my picture of the mark on this mysterious paperweight and also a picture of the paperweight. The base of the paperweight has a silver plate covering with felt in the center. The base layer is copper and some of the silver has been worn off. The maker of the original glass paperweight is unknown. The focus was on the silver base which has a series of tiny hallmarks. You can see the location of the mark in the last picture (of the base) at approximately 10 o'clock. The paperweight is 2 3/4" diameter by 1 15/16" high. The mark is on a raised area which is 3/16" across.
Since the original posting it has been verified that the mark belongs to a small silver firm Sileda Ltd in Cefn-y-bedd Wales UK. The confirmation of the mark was provided by the Sheffield Assay Office. The makers mark is S.L. with a small indent between the two letters. Sileda registered their punches between 1980 and 2000. It is known that they added silverwork to the base of paperweights, to the collar of vases, and possibly other glass objects. Some of the glass objects have been identified as sourced at UK glass studios. The maker of the glass paperweight does not seem to be identified in my searches. Mike Hunter in one Facebook post commented that they may be a firm he as seen at trade shows and, if so, they had some glass making ability and perhaps made the paperweight themselves. I don't claim any knowledge of UK silver marks, but have been able to identify the first mark below the SL as the Sheffield Tudor Rose (the Assay office in Sheffield), The middle mark is a mystery to me because you would expect a quality mark, so this may be a variation of the lion rampant. The third mark, a script M, establishes the date as 1986.
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The middle mark of the hallmark looks to be the Brittania mark, if it is, this is a higher grade silver (95.8%) than the standard lion passant marked silver (92.5%). You have the correct date and assay town of Sheffield.
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Silver plate isn't assayed, so any marks on plate are either maker's marks or designed to be misleading
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Late to the party here not seen this thread before, but I was sure this was a Geurnsey Island studio glass weight having had one similar with a label a few years back. A quick google finds this https://picclick.co.uk/2-Guernsey-Island-Studio-Glass-Handmade-Paperweights-114209680679.html (https://picclick.co.uk/2-Guernsey-Island-Studio-Glass-Handmade-Paperweights-114209680679.html) don't know that they ever added silver or silver plate bases themselves though.
Nick
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Thanks to user9318, Lustrousstone, and Nick77 for your comments. I'll take them in order.
I agree the middle mark appears to be the Brittania mark. I thought that was discontinued in 1719, but maybe this is a modification.
And to Lustrousstone, I agree that the assay or quality mark doesn't make much sense for silverplate, even Sheffield plate. Maybe Sileda had their silver assayed as used for other items that were silver and was confused (or meant to confuse) buyers when they put it on this item. As I said, the purpose of the middle mark was a mystery to me.
And finally Nick77, thank you for your ID of Geurnsey Island studio glass as the likely maker of the paperweight.
I can't believe I reopened a four year old thread, but sometimes things kick around for a while. When I found the paperweight again in my deep storage I decided to put some time into getting resolution. Thanks everyone.