J.C. Leyendecker, Father of the New Year's Baby

Common Sense Antiques

Questions & Common Sense Answers

What Is It Worth?

The Antique Detective: Interest in Paperweights, Old and New, Revs Up

Bakelite: The Beautiful Plastic

Interest in Paperweights, Old and New, Revs Up

As seen in The Antique Shoppe Newspaper, January 2007

Prices are all over the map when paperweights come to auction and it doesn’t matter whether they are antique or contemporary. Such was the case at a recent L. H.. Selman paperweight auction. An antique Mt. Washington c.1840-80, fetched $19,900 including the buyers 10%. Not doing as well was an antique Baccarat four flower bouquet that sold way under estimate for $9,900, with buyers 10% premium. At the James Julia glass auction contemporary weights did well. A Paul Stankard botanical weight sold over estimate for $4,312.50 plus buyers 15% premium.

Paperweights were first made in the 1840s by the great glasshouses of France, Baccarat, Clichy and St. Louis, They were first made as decorative pieces. From 1845 to 1860, everything from delicate glass flowers, butterflies and bird designs were made from tiny glass canes of “Millefiori” (the Italian word for thousand flowers) constructed and enclosed in clear crystal.

The antique weights used three different techniques. The Millefiori weights used cross sections of tiny glass canes patterned to create a variety of designs. Sulphide weights, made of ceramic paste and glass featuring animal forms and cameos. Lamp work weights used designs made outside the weight, such as flowers. Sometimes all the techniques were combined. At the same time the weights were made in France, in Italy and Bohemia the Millefiori process was used. Shortly thereafter English and American glasshouses began making weights.

CLUES: Each glasshouse had its specialties, which can help collectors to identify some of them. For example, Baccarat made silhouette canes, 18 of the best-known, called the Gridel series, were based on animal cutout designs. Other Baccarat motifs were trefoil (a Garland with three loops), a mushroom-shaped tuft of Millefiori canes, close packed and a double overlay (layers of colored glass with windows cut on its coated surface to allow a view of the inner motif). Small images of animals, butterflies and birds were also used. Clichy had a specialty of an opaline weight (a flat rectangular or book-shaped weight, made of opaque or transparent opaline glass with a slightly raised oval medallion, nosegay or other millefiori design encased inside. Few Clichy weights are signed. The most common signature cane is a “C” in serif or sans-serif style or the full name Clichy. There is also the “Clichy rose”, a cane made only by Clichy that is as good as a signature.

The Clichy rose was copies by factories in England and Czechoslovakia. There are Italian reproductions of 19th century weights and Chinese copies with an orange-yellow tinge and smooth bottom.

The quality of the design, poor grinding and polishing and bubbles affect the price.

By the late 1950s glass factories in Europe and individual American artisans were creating quality paperweights. Among the most famous is the late Paul Ysart, considered the finest weight maker of the 20th century. So much so that his works are being faked.

These days collectors pay top dollar for contemporary weights by Paul Stankard, Randall Grubb and Chris Buzzini, among others.