Topic: Antique Butterfly with signature cane - ID Help Please

[paperweights]

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.

[paperweights]

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.

[tropdevin]

***

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

[paperweights]

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

[tropdevin]

***

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

[donaldf]

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

[paperweights]

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?

[alpha]

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.

[alpha]

Any luck with the photo of the back of the sig cane or the blue flower cane?

[paperweights]

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.