Weights are a glass act
HIS is a tale of two auctions. One in the closing days of last year, the other last September. Both featured glass paperweights.
The former included the dispersal of a substantial collection of the things, none of which was old, all of which sold for modest prices. The latter just one single weight, which turned out to be an unexpected and pricey gem.
That’s the trouble with paperweights. Are they antique or modern?
Nevertheless, you buy one and you’re hooked. Buy a handful and it becomes an obsession.
Stumble on a rare and early 19th century French example like the one illustrated here and with sufficient knowledge to identify it, the miniature masterpiece could be yours.
Spot it in an auction, though, where the international reach of the internet alerts collectors worldwide, and your bank balance might never recover.
So it was at Cardiff auctioneers Rogers Jones Co, where even the auctioneer, Ben Rogers Jones, was left amazed.
Estimated at £800-1,200 the 4½in (11cm) diameter, 3lb dated Baccarat close-packed millefiori paperweight had been found in a house clearance in nearby Dinas Powys.
It was spotted in the sale by a private buyer from Somerset bidding on the telephone against an online underbidder from the US. Somerset won, securing it for £12,000.
It was a classic saleroom bidding battle: two wealthy bidders each absolutely determined to fill a gap in their respective collections, driving the price ever upwards. Never is the collector so vulnerable to making a mistake, because at that level, the ability and knowledge to recognise original from modern is vital.
In this case, the clues were all there. Dated 1847 on one of the multi-coloured canes to the interior and with the initial B on another, the bright design also featured animals and birds, including a horse and cockerel. You just needed educated eyes to see.
Collectors refer to three periods of Baccarat paperweight production, with 1846-60 regarded as the classic period, so 1847 was a desirable early date. Save for a couple of small chips and a few surface scratches, it was also largely in excellent shape.
La Compagnie de Cristalleries Baccarat was one of three leading French makers, but a later competitor was the Cristallerie de St. Louis, at Louis-les-Bitche, also in the Lorraine area of France and the Cristalleries de Clichy, just outside Paris.
Key to their success lay in the term millefiori, literally “a thousand flowers” and the adaptation of the process by one Pietro Bigaglia. A member of an old Venetian family of glass artists, he is generally credited with the manufacture of the first glass paperweight in 1845.
The Venetians had been making millefiori glass since the 15th century. Briefly, and in its simplest form, this involved fusing together rods of different coloured glass, which were then reheated and stretched. The resulting long, thin stick was then chopped into dozens of short sticks or canes, numerous colour combinations of which were possible.
To make a paperweight, Pietro placed a selection of the canes in a mould in the desired pattern and fused them within a globule of clear molten glass held by a steel rod called a pontil.
The dome was formed by shaping the molten glass to cover the exposed canes, the magnification effect being enhanced by shaping and subsequent polishing the dome achieved by rolling it over a wet, wooden block.
Once cut from the pontil rod, the area around it was similarly smoothed and polished to form the flat base of the weight. It sounds simple but, in truth, it was a highly skilled and time-consuming process. The exact year and origin of the manufacture of the first glass paper weight is not known but the first documented appearance of Pietro’s handiwork can be traced to the Exhibition of Austrian Industry held in Vienna in 1845.
Here was a product to put some commercial sparkle back into the business and bosses at the St Louis glassworks were the first to adopt the idea. Clichy was quick to follow, both producing weights in the same year. Baccarat’s entry is marked by weights dated 1846.
All three produced numerous strikingly beautiful patterns with complicated and highly colourful canes being employed to produce many expensive weights. In addition to Baccarat’s B, Clichy used a particular rose-shaped cane as a trademark, occasionally set with the letters C L .
St Louis weights can be found bearing the initials S L . Bear in mind, however, that dated and marked weights are rarities. The authenticity of those in which such features appear to be too good to be true should be questioned before hard-earned cash changes hands.
The expert would also be best able to point out the distinct characteristics of colouring and design employed by the three glass companies. St Louis, for example, specialised in a coloured overlay technique that covered the clear glass weight with blue, pink or green glass.
The layer was then cut with windows, or “printies” to give them their technical term, through which the pattern or glass flowers in the centre of the weight could be seen.
Crossed garlands of millefiore and canes arranged in a way that looks like mushrooms were other St Louis hallmarks, while tightly packed canes covering the base, known as “close millefiore” was popular with Baccarat, as were butterflies.
Clichy, on the other hand, excelled at flowers, particularly those featuring its rose trademark, attractive swirl designs and an easily identifiable moss green ground often studded with canes arranged in concentric circles.
Arguably the finest makers, Clichy was the only French glasshouse to be invited to exhibit its paper weights at the Great Exposition at the Crystal Palace in London in 1851, and again at the New York Crystal Palace in 1853. As a result, Victorian tourists purchased a great many as souvenirs and they continue to turn up in the salerooms. The key to success is being able to recognise them.
Collectors of modern paperweights are drawn to those unique or limited examples produced by Caithness Glass, the Scottish company established in 1961 by the late Robin Sinclair, 2nd Viscount Thurso and John Ditchfield from Blackpool, one of this countr y’s top glass artists.