A paperweight is a small solid object heavy enough, when placed on top of papers, to keep them from blowing away in a breeze or from moving under the strokes of a painting brush (as with Chinese calligraphy). While any object, such as a stone, can serve as a paperweight, decorative paperweights of metal, glass, jade or other material are also produced, either by individual artisans or factories.
In the West, the decorative paperweights are usually in limited editions, and are collected as works of fine glass art, some of which are exhibited in museums.[1][2] First produced in about 1845, particularly in France, such decorative paperweights declined in popularity before undergoing a revival in the mid-twentieth century.
Basic features
Decorative glass paperweights have a flat or slightly concave base, usually polished but sometimes frosted, cut in one of several variations (e.g. star-cut bases have a multi-pointed star, while a diamond cut base has grooves cut in a criss-cross pattern), although a footed weight has a flange in the base. The ground on which the inner parts rest may be clear or colored, made of unfused sand, or resemble lace (latticinio).[3] The domed top is usually faceted or cut and made of lead glass and may be coated with one or more thin layers of colored glass, and have windows cut through it to reveal the interior motif. The exact shape or profile of the dome varies from one artist or factory to another, but in fine examples will act as a lens that, as one moves the weight about, attractively varies the inner design's appearance. A magnifying glass is often used to gain appreciation of the fine detail of the work within. In a modern piece, an identifying mark and date are imperative.[citation needed]
Paperweights are made by individual artisans or in factories where many artists and technicians collaborate; both may produce inexpensive as well as "collector" weights.
Workmanship, design, rarity, and condition determine a paperweight's value: its glass should not have a yellow or greenish cast,[citation needed] and there should be no unintentional asymmetries, or unevenly spaced or broken elements. Visible flaws, such as bubbles, striations and scratches lessen the value.
Antique paperweights, of which perhaps 10,000 or so survive (mostly in museums[citation needed]), generally appreciate steadily in value;[citation needed] as of August 2018 the record price was the $258,500 paid in 1990 for an antique French weight.[4][5]
In China, paperweight is as old as paper, already existed in the Han dynasty (202-220 BC), and its predecessor used for holding down floor mats existed in the Warring States period (475-221 BC).
Western paperweights started in the "classic" years between 1845 and 1860 primarily[6] in three French factories named Baccarat, Saint-Louis and Clichy. Together, they made between 15,000 and 25,000 weights in the classic period.[7] Weights (mainly of lesser quality) were also made in the United States, United Kingdom, and elsewhere, though Bacchus (UK) and New England Glass Company (US) produced some that equaled the best of the French. Modern weights have been made from about 1950 to the present.
In the US, Charles Kaziun started in 1940 to produce buttons, paperweights, inkwells and other bottles, using lamp-work of elegant simplicity. In Scotland, the pioneering work of Paul Ysart from the 1930s onward preceded a new generation of artists such as William Manson, Peter McDougall, Peter Holmes and John Deacons. A further impetus to reviving interest in paperweights was the publication of Evangiline Bergstrom's book, Old Glass Paperweights, the first of a new genre.
A number of small studios appeared in the mid-20th century, particularly in the US. These may have several to some dozens of workers with various levels of skill cooperating to produce their own distinctive line. Notable examples are Lundberg Studios, Orient and Flume, Correia Art Glass, St. Clair, Lotton, and Parabelle Glass.[8]
Starting in the late 1960s and early 1970s, artists such as Francis Whittemore,[9]Paul Stankard,[10] his former assistant Jim D'Onofrio,[11] Chris Buzzini,[12] Delmo[13] and daughter Debbie Tarsitano,[14] Victor Trabucco[15] and sons, Gordon Smith,[16] Rick Ayotte[17] and his daughter Melissa, the father and son team of Bob and Ray Banford,[18] and Ken Rosenfeld[19] began breaking new ground and were able to produce fine paperweights rivaling anything produced in the classic period.[citation needed]
Collectors may specialize in one of several types of paperweights, but more often they wind up with an eclectic mix.
Millefiori (Italian—'thousand flowers') paperweights contain thin cross-sections of cylindrical composite canes made from colored rods and usually resemble little flowers, although they can be designed after anything, even letters and dates. These are usually made in a factory setting. They exist in many variations such as scattered, patterned, close concentric or carpet ground. Sometimes the canes are formed into a sort of upright tuft shaped like a mushroom that is encased in the dome. The year of manufacture is sometimes enclosed in one of the canes.
Lampwork paperweights have objects such as flowers, fruit, butterflies or animals constructed by shaping and working bits of colored glass with a gas burner or torch and assembling them into attractive compositions, which are then incorporated into the dome. This is a form particularly favored by studio artists. The objects are often stylized, but may be highly realistic.
Sulphide paperweights have an encased cameo-like medallion or portrait plaque made from a special ceramic that is able to reproduce very fine detail. These are known as incrustations, cameo incrustations, or sulphides. They often are produced to commemorate some person or event.[20] From the late 1700s through the end of the 1900s, an amazing variety of glass objects, including paperweights, were made with incrustations. The finest collection of incrustations ever assembled was by Paul Jokelson,[21] collector, author and founder of the Paperweight Collectors' Association. A part of his collection was gifted to the Corning Museum of Glass, with the remaining portion being sold in London in the 1990s.
Most paperweights, which are considered works of art, use one of the above techniques; millefiori, lampwork or sulphide — all techniques that had been around long before the advent of paperweights. A fourth technique, a crimp flower, usually a rose, originated in the Millville, New Jersey area in the first decade of the twentieth century.[22] Often called a Millville rose, these weights range from simple folk art to fine works of art, depending on the maker.
Fine weights not made with any of the major techniques include swirls, marbries and crowns. Swirl paperweights have opaque rods of two or three colors radiating like a pinwheel from a central millefiori floret. A similar style, the marbrie, is a paperweight that has several bands of color close to the surface that descend from the apex in a looping pattern to the bottom of the weight. Crown paperweights have twisted ribbons, alternately colored and white filigree which radiate from a central millefiori floret at the top, down to converge again at the base. This was first devised in the Saint Louis factory and remains popular today.
Antique Clichy Green & White Swirl Paperweight With Large Millefiori Center. Made in France in the Mid 1800s.
Miniature weights have a diameter of less than approximately 2 inches (5.1cm), and magnums have a diameter greater than about 3.25 inches (8.3cm).
California-style paperweights are made by "painting" the surface of the dome with colored molten glass (torchwork), and manipulated with picks or other tools. They may also be sprayed while hot with various metallic salts to achieve an iridescent look.
Victorian portrait and advertising paperweights were dome glass paperweights first made in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania using a process patented in 1882 by William H. Maxwell. The portrait paperweights contained pictures of ordinary people reproduced on a milk glass disk and encased within clear glass. This same process was also used to produce paperweights with the owner's name encased or an advertisement of a business or product. Pittsburgher Albert A. Graeser patented a different process for making advertising paperweights in 1892. The Graeser process involved sealing an image to the underside of a rectangular glass blank using a milk glass or enamel-like glaze. Many paperweights of the late 19th century are marked either J. N. Abrams or Barnes and Abrams and may list either the 1882 Maxwell or 1892 Graeser patent date. It has been theorized that Barnes and Abrams did not actually manufacture advertising paperweights for their customers, but instead subcontracted the actual manufacturing task out to Pittsburgh-area glasshouses. The Paperweight Collectors Association Annual Bulletins published in 2000, 2001 and 2002 describe these in detail.
Bohemian paperweights were particularly popular in Victorian times. Large engraved or cut hollow spheres of ruby glass were a common form.
There are many paperweight collectors worldwide. Several collectors' associations hold national or regional conventions, and sponsor activities such as tours, lectures, and auctions. Famous collectors include the literary figures Colette, Oscar Wilde and Truman Capote. Empress Eugenie (Napoleon III's wife), Empress Carlotta (wife of Maximilian I of Mexico) and Farouk, King of Egypt[23] were also avid collectors.[24] The collecting histories of Rubloff, Bergstrom, and Houghton were similar. They had two things in common—a passion for their collecting, and the privilege of having sufficient financial resources to build extensive collections of very rare and expensive weights. Another famous collector was Lothar-Günther Buchheim, the German author and painter, best known for his novel Das Boot. His collection of about 3,000 paperweights can be seen at his museum in Germany—Museum der Phantasie—in Bernried, Bavaria, Starnberger See.
In May 1953, collector Paul Jokelson organized and created the Paperweight Collectors Association (PCA), the world's first collecting group dedicated to glass paperweights. Interest grew rapidly and by May 1954, membership had risen to 280 members and the PCA published its first bulletin. The PCA held its first convention in May 1961, in New York City with 100 members in attendance. In September 1968, Paul Jokelson published the first PCA newsletter. In September 1995, the PCA entered the digital era, going online with the PCA, Inc. website. In December 2010 the PCA Facebook page was created, allowing for casual observers, aficionados, artists, and collectors to become ever more connected, allowing for the appreciation of this enchanting art to thrive. Today membership spans the globe.[25]
PCA Members receive a newsletter four times a year and a printed annual bulletin. The annual bulletin is the only publication of its kind and the preeminent source for all things paperweight-related. It contains indispensable, up-to-date research on the great paperweight makers of the 19th century and the masters of the art today. The PCA holds a convention biennially, where collectors, artists, dealers and scholars from around the world meet to share their passion for the art of the paperweight. At the convention, attendees can expect to see artist demonstrations from some of the world's leading glass artists, presentations from paperweight scholars and artists, and some of the world's finest paperweights on display.[26]
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Cameo is a method of carving an object such as an engraved gem, item of jewellery or vessel. It nearly always features a raised (positive) relief image; contrast with intaglio, which has a negative image. Originally, and still in discussing historical work, cameo only referred to works where the relief image was of a contrasting colour to the background; this was achieved by carefully carving a piece of material with a flat plane where two contrasting colours met, removing all the first colour except for the image to leave a contrasting background.
Glassblowing is a glassforming technique that involves inflating molten glass into a bubble with the aid of a blowpipe. A person who blows glass is called a glassblower, glassmith, or gaffer. A lampworker manipulates glass with the use of a torch on a smaller scale, such as in producing precision laboratory glassware out of borosilicate glass.
Studio glass is the modern use of glass as an artistic medium to produce sculptures or three-dimensional artworks in the fine arts. The glass objects created are intended to make a sculptural or decorative statement, and typically serve no useful function. Though usage varies, the term is properly restricted to glass made as art in small workshops, typically with the personal involvement of the artist who designed the piece. This is in contrast to art glass, made by craftsmen in factories, and glass art, covering the whole range of glass with artistic interest made throughout history. Both art glass and studio glass originate in the 19th century, and the terms compare with studio pottery and art pottery, but in glass the term "studio glass" is mostly used for work made in the period beginning in the 1960s with a major revival in interest in artistic glassmaking.
Millefiori is a glasswork technique which produces distinctive decorative patterns on glassware. The term millefiori is a combination of the Italian words "mille" (thousand) and "fiori" (flowers). Apsley Pellatt in his book Curiosities of Glass Making was the first to use the term "millefiori", which appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1849; prior to that, the beads were called mosaic beads. While the use of this technique long precedes the term "millefiori", it is now most frequently associated with Venetian glassware.
Baccarat is a French luxury house and manufacturer of fine crystal located in Baccarat, Meurthe-et-Moselle, France. The company owns two museums: the Musée Baccarat in Baccarat, and the Musée Baccarat in Paris on the Place des États-Unis.
Glass bead making has long traditions, with the oldest known beads dating over 3,000 years. Glass beads have been dated back to at least Roman times. Perhaps the earliest glass-like beads were Egyptian faience beads, a form of clay bead with a self-forming vitreous coating. Glass beads are significant in archaeology because the presence of glass beads often indicate that there was trade and that the bead making technology was being spread. In addition, the composition of the glass beads could be analyzed and help archaeologists understand the sources of the beads.
Venetian glass is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city. Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as gilding, enamel, or engraving. Production has been concentrated on the Venetian island of Murano since the 13th century. Today Murano is known for its art glass, but it has a long history of innovations in glassmaking in addition to its artistic fame—and was Europe's major center for luxury glass from the High Middle Ages to the Italian Renaissance. During the 15th century, Murano glassmakers created cristallo—which was almost transparent and considered the finest glass in the world. Murano glassmakers also developed a white-colored glass that looked like porcelain. They later became Europe's finest makers of mirrors.
Millefleur, millefleurs or mille-fleur refers to a background style of many different small flowers and plants, usually shown on a green ground, as though growing in grass. It is essentially restricted to European tapestry during the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, from about 1400 to 1550, but mainly about 1480–1520. The style had a notable revival by Morris & Co. in 19th century England, being used on original tapestry designs, as well as illustrations from his Kelmscott Press publications. The millefleur style differs from many other styles of floral decoration, such as the arabesque, in that many different sorts of individual plants are shown, and there is no regular pattern. The plants fill the field without connecting or significantly overlapping. In that it also differs from the plant and floral decoration of Gothic page borders in illuminated manuscripts.
Frederick Carder was a glassmaker, glass designer, and glass artist who was active in the glass industry in both England and the United States, notably for Stevens & Williams and Steuben, respectively. Known for his experimentation with form and color, Carder's work remains popular among collectors and can be found in numerous museum collections, including The Corning Museum of Glass, which houses theFrederick Carder Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, and the Detroit Institute of Arts. He was born in Staffordshire, England, and died in Corning, New York, where he had made his home in 1903.
Judy Jensen is an American artist who resides in Austin, Texas. She is best known for her reverse painting on glass, although she incorporates other mixed media into her glass pieces. According to Nancy Bless, Jensen's works "lie somewhere between a collage and a collection."
The Everhart Museum of Natural History, Science & Art is a non-profit art and natural history museum located in Nay Aug Park in Scranton, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1908 by Dr. Isaiah Fawkes Everhart, a local medical doctor and skilled taxidermist. Many of the specimens in the museum's extensive ornithological collection came from Dr. Everhart's personal collection.
Murrine are colored patterns or images made in a glass cane that are revealed when the cane is cut into thin cross-sections. Murrine can be made in infinite designs from simple circular or square patterns to complex detailed designs to even portraits of people. One familiar style is the flower or star shape which, when used together in large numbers from a number of different canes, is called millefiori.
The firm of James Powell and Sons, also known as Whitefriars Glass, were London-based English glassmakers, leadlighters and stained-glass window manufacturers. As Whitefriars Glass, the company existed from the 17th century, but became well known as a result of the 19th-century Gothic Revival and the demand for stained glass windows.
The Boston and Sandwich Glass Company was incorporated in 1826 to hold the glass factory built a year earlier in Sandwich, Massachusetts, by Deming Jarves. The factory was closed in 1888 amid disputes with a newly formed glassmakers' labor union.
Dominick Labino was an American internationally known scientist, inventor, artist and master craftsman in glass. Labino's art works in glass are in the permanent collections of more than 100 museums throughout the world. Labino held over 60 glass-oriented patents in the United States.
A glossary of terms used in glass art
Paul Joseph Stankard is an American artist, flameworker and author.
Glass art refers to individual works of art that are substantially or wholly made of glass. It ranges in size from monumental works and installation pieces to wall hangings and windows, to works of art made in studios and factories, including glass jewelry and tableware.
Sulphide portrait glassware is blown, cut, and molded glassware usually made from lead crystal that encases an image. The image appears silver or white, as if made from silver sulphide. Although sulphide is used to describe glass decorated in this manor, the silver or white image is actually a hardened clay paste. Experiments with this glass decorating style began in Europe during the late 18th century, and processes for production were successfully implemented in France and England during the early 19th century. Production in the United States began in the 1820s.
References
↑ Hollister, Paul and Lanmon, Dwight P. Paperweight: "Flowers which clothe the Meadows" Corning Museum of Glass, (1978) p 22, ISBN0-87290-065-7
↑ Selman, Lawrence H. and Pope-Selman, Linda Paperweights for Collectors Paperweight Press (1978) p 144.
↑ Bergstrom, Evangiline H. Old Glass Paperweights: Their Art, Construction and Distinguishing Features Lakeside Press, 1940 Ch. 1
Stankard, Paul J. (2007) No Green Berries or Leaves—The Creative Journey of an Artist in GlassISBN0-939923-55-6 softcover and ISBN0-939923-69-6 hardcover
External links
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