Glossary

Glossary

Air ring An elongated air inclusion encircling a weight near the base, usually above and below a torsade.

Annealing oven An oven that gradually reduces the temperature of the finished weight to ensure even cooling and prevent cracking.

.Arrow cane (or crow’s-foot) A millefiori section made from rods containing a threepronged arrow motif.

Aventurine Glass with a sparkling appearance caused by the addition of metallic crystals to the melt.

Basal rim The ring around the bottom of a concave base where the paperweight comes into contact with the supporting surface.

Basal ring The flange seen on some English paperweights, a result of in-cutting just above the base; not a footed weight.

Base The bottom of a paperw eight.

Basket An outer row of millefiori canes, pulled together underneath the motif to form a staved enclosure for the decorative elements; a lat- ticinio ground pulled down in the center (as in Saint Louis and American fruit weights); a latticinio ground with a “handle” of twisted filigree extending above the motif.

Batch A mixture of sand, lead oxide, potash, and cullet within the melting pot.

Block (or paddle) A curved wooden paddle used to shape the dome of a paperweight.

Blowtorch (or lamp or torch) A small gas burner or torch used to reheat hardened crystal rods for lampwork motifs.

Bouquet A floral design composed of more than one flower.

Bouquet de mariage A mushroom motif in which the tuft of the mushroom is composed of w hite stardust canes.

Cabbage rose A Clichy rose composed of cabbagelike strands of glass that may have been formed in a rose-cane mold.

Cameo See sulphide

Cameo incrustation Any type of sulphide object.

Candy Denotes a scrambled millefiori paperweight.

Cane (or floret) A small piece of molded or bundled glass rod that has been pulled out so an intricate pattern appears in cross section.

Carpet ground An overall pattern of identical millefiori canes used as a ground.

Chaplet bead A tw ist of latticinio thread. Chequer weight A paperweight in which the millefiori canes are separated by short lengths of latticinio twists in a checkerboard fashion.

Choufleur From the French for cauliflower; a kind of ground made up of canes set loosely and with a twist. See also ground.

Chrysoprase Apple green in color.

Cinquefoil A garland of canes having five loops.

Circlets Small circles of millefiori canes.

Classic period Paperweight production in France between 1845 and 1860.

Clear ground Clear glass used as a background for a paperweight design.

Close concentric millefiori A spacing pattern in millefiori weights with tightly packed concentric circles of canes.

Close packed millefiori (or close millefiori)

A tightly packed arrangement of millefiori canes.

Clover cut Intersecting facets, typical of the surface cutting of the New England Glass Company.

Cluster A close grouping of similar canes, common in certain Clichy paperw eights.

Cog cane A molded millefiori cane with a serrated edge.

Cog method A special notation for the identification of Saint Louis paperweights.

Collar A metal ring used to surround the disc or template and to help center the motif being picked up by molten crystal.

Color ground Opaque or transparent colored glass used as a background for a paperweight motif.

Concentric millefiori Any spacing scheme in millefiori weights with concentric circles of canes placed around a central cane or cluster of canes.

Cookie base Athick, cookie-shaped pad forming the base of fruit weights made by the New England Glass Company.

Crimp A metal tool inserted into molten glass to form three-dimentional roses and lilies, used especially at Millville.

Crimped cane A corrugated or vertically ribbed cane.

Crow n (or dome) The glass above the motif in a paperweight.

Crown weight A type of hollow paperweight in which alternating bands of colored and lacy white twists radiate from a central floret near the top of the dome, flow down the sides of the weight, and converge again near the base.

Crow’s-foot See arrow cane

Crystallo ceramie The patented name and process for cameo production developed by Apslev Pellatt. See also sulphide.

Cullet Small pieces of broken glass added to the batch.

Cushion See ground

Cutting Grinding the surface of a paperweight for ornamentation.

Date cane A millefiori cane with numerals or a letter identify ing the year of manufacture. Decorative paperweight A paperweight produced in unlimited editions, usually unsigned or signed with a paper seal, and moderately priced for beginning collectors; not investment quality.

Design The internal decoration of a paperweight.

Devil’s fire A swirling, mottled motif used by Millville.

Diameter The most commonly used physical measure of a paperweight.

Diamond cut A many-faceted cutting pattern used to decorate the outside of a weight, usually the base.

Disc See template Dome See crown

Doorstop A very’ large paperweight, primarily manufactured by English bottlemakers and American glasshouses in the midwest. Double overlay See overlay Edelweiss cane A white star-shaped millefiori cane surrounding a core of bundled yellow rods; resembles the Sw iss national flower. Encased overlay See overlay End-of-day weight See scrambled millefiori Facet (or printy or punty) The flat or concave surface formed when the side or top of a paperweight is shaped with a grinding wheel. Printy’ usually refers to a concave facet.

Faceting Elat cutting of the domed surface of a paperweight.

Festoon A swag design used especially in marbrie weights.

Filigree See lace

Flash A thin coating of transparent colored glass applied to the base of a paperweight; applied to the entire weight in the case of a flash overlay.

Flat bouquet See nosegay Floret See cane

Flower weight A paperweight in which a single flower is the central motif.

Fluting A pattern of deep, narrow grooves usually cut vertically on the outside of a paperweight.

Footed weight (or pedestal weight or piedouche) A weight having its own pedestal, flanged at the bottom.

Furnace A tank fabricated lor melting the glass batch.

Gaffer A skilled craftsman, a master glass- worker.

Garland Any spacing scheme using one or more chains of millefiori canes in an undulating pattern.

Gather Molten glass collected on the end of a pontil rod.

Gauze See lace

Glass a retorti A Venetian specialty featuring varying patterns formed by the threads of filigree glass found in the base of paperweight- related objects.

Glory hole A fabricated unit with an intensely hot flame used for reheating glass.

Gold inclusion A gold or enameled gold design enclosed within crystal.

Goldstone A gold aventurine glass used primarily by Italian glassmakers.

Grid cutting A set of shallow narrow grooves cut into the base of a paperweight to form a grid.

Ground A cushion on which the decorative element of a paperweight rests; usually convex in appearance when viewed through the top or sides of the weight.

Handcooler A solid or hollow blown egg- shaped glass object; once a common accessory for ladies.

Flobnail A set of V-shaped grooves cut into the base of a paperweight at right angles to each other, forming a grid pattern.

Hollow weight A blown weight with a central hollow air bubble surrounded by glass. Used in crown weights and to encase lampwork figures.

Honeycomb cane A ty pe of millefiori rod, the cross section ot which resembles the cell pattern of a honeycomb.

Incrustation The process of enclosing a sulphide in glass.

Initial cane See signature cane

Intaglio A decoration either pressed or cut into a piece ot glass.

Jasper ground Ground formed by a mixture of two colors of finely ground glass.

Lace (also called filigree, gauze, muslin, upset muslin) White or colored glass threads spiraled around a clear rod; used in short segments to form a paperweight ground.

Lamp See blowtorch

Lampwork I ‘he manipulation ot glass with a gas burner or torch; also the process of creating representational paperweight subjects. Latticinio A lacy backdrop created from white and clear glass. Lace is uniformly chaotic, whereas latticinio is a basketweave pattern. Lattimo Opaque, white milk glass. Macedoine A paperweight containing primarily filigree twists.

Magnum A paperweight with a diameter exceeding 3 1/4 inches.

Marbrie (or marbled) A paperweight design consisting ot looped, colored bands emanating from a cane at the top ot the weight and running along the sides to the bottom. Design elements are close to the surface of the dome. Marver A smooth, flat iron surface (formerly made ot marble) on which the gather of molten glass at the end ot a pontil rod is rolled.

Mazarene blue A purplish blue similar to ultramarine blue, used as a ground or overlay color.

Melt A batch of molten glass.

Metal Traditional term used by glassworkers for glass in its molten state.

Millefiori Italian phrase for “a thousand flowers,” the cross sections of molded glass rods of various sizes anti colors used in paperweights.

Millefleurs French term for millefiori.

Miniature Paperweight with a diameter of less than two inches.

Molds Precast iron forms of different geometric designs, animal silhouettes, initials, numerals, and other shapes, into which a gather of molten glass is pressed to create a cane design.

iMoss cane A complex cane composed of green rods, sometimes centered around a white rod.

Mushroom (or tuft) A paperweight containing an upright mushroom-shaped tuft of millefiori canes.

Muslin See lace

Newel post A paperweight post at the end or foot of a flight of stairs, supporting a handrail.

Nosegay (or flat bouquet) A paperweight motif consisting of a flat bouquet using millefiori canes as flowers.

Opaline A flat rectangular or book-shaped paperweight, made of opaque or translucent opaline glass, with a slightlv raised oval medallion, nosegay, or other millefiori design encased within; a specialty of Clichy.

Overlay A paperweight that has been coated with one (single overlay), two (double overlay), or three (triple overlay) layers of colored glass, with windows cut on its coated surface to allow visual access to the inner motif. Encased overlays have been further covered in a thick coating of clear glass.

Paddle See block

Panel weight A paperweight in which clusters of canes form alternating sections separated either by exposed sections of the weight’s ground, filigree twists, canes, or rods.

Paperweight A glass sphere or plaque enclosing decorative elements such as millefiori canes, lampwork motifs of colored glass, sulphide portraits, or metallic motifs.

Pastry mold A millefiori cane that flares or “skirts” out at its basal end.

Patterned millefiori Any spacing scheme in millefiori weights with ordered groupings of florets forming a design.

Pedestal weight See footed w eight Pell-mell See scrambled

Penholder (or shot glass) A paperweight- based, short flanged vase, originally filled with shot to hold quill pens.

Piedouche French term for footed weight. Pincers A tong-like instrument used to hold, place, and shape molten glass.

Pinchbeck weight A metallic disk made of a zinc-copper alloy simulating gold or silver, with a design in bas-relief. The disc is covered with a magnifying lens fitted to a pewter or alabaster base. Not a true paperweight because the motif is not entirely enased in glass. Pliers A lampworking tool used to manipulate and shape molten glass.

Pontil mark (or pontil scar) The characteristic mark in the center of a weight’s base, where the w eight was separated from the rod on which it was made.

Pontil rod (or puntv rod) A long, solid metal rod, usuallv made of iron, used to hold a paperweight while it is being made.

Profile The shape of a paperweight viewed from the side.

Print}’ See facet

Punty See facet

Quatrefoil A four-lobed design used as the central element of a millefiori cane; a faceting scheme for the exterior ornamentation of some paperweights; a garland pattern.

Random spacing scheme An assortment of canes packed tightly together in an upright position to form an overall design.

Reduction lathe A complex mechanism that cuts a reduced and faithful reproduction of an original bronze image into steel, used in sulphide production.

Reduction lens Used in sulphide production to check the surface smoothness of a cameo.

Refractor}’ pot A fireproof clay receptacle used to melt the components of glass at 1400-1450° C, used for two or three months before being replaced.

Ribbon A cane containing a flat ribbon-like element, sometimes twisted; used in crown weights, torsades, and chequer weights.

Ring A row or circle of millefiori canes in a concentric paperweight.

Rock ground (or sand ground) A uneven granular paperweight ground formed with unfused sand, mica flakes, and green glass.

Rod A cylindrical length of glass, most often containing a simple molded design of more than one color; the basic component of a millefiori cane.

Rose pompadour A delicate pink ground used in some Clichy paperw eights as w’ell as Sevres porcelain.

Rosette A central motif of closely fitted canes in a circular cluster, symbolizing a flower.

Saliva Unwanted string of air bubbles from insufficient expulsion of air during assembly.

Sand ground See rock ground

Scattered millefiori A somewhat irregular spaced concentric millefiori pattern.

Scrambled millefiori (or end-of-day) A millefiori paperweight design in which whole and broken canes and sometimes w hite or colored lace are jumbled together to fill the weight.

Servitor An attendant or helper.

Setup Used interchangeably with “motif” to denote the central element(s) in a representational weight.

Shears A scissors-like instrument used to cut malleable glass.

Shot glass See penholder

Signature cane (or initial cane) A millefiori cane indicating the name or initial(s) of the weight’s factory of origin or the artist who created it.

Silhouette cane A millefiori cane that reveals the shape of an animal, flower, or figure when cut in cross section.

Single overlay See overlay

Spaced millefiori A pattern of individual millefiori canes set at equal or nearly equal distances from each other, forming a set of vaguely defined circles.

Spacingscheines Motifs of millefiori canes in random, patterned, and special arrangements. Spiral An opaque glass thread wound around a clear rod.

Spiral latticinio A convex or funnel-shaped ground formed by threads of latticinio.

Spoke concentric A New England Class Company design suggesting spokes of a wheel.

Spoke paperweight One with an overall design suggesting the spokes of a wheel; a Saint Louis paperweight having a jasper ground of alternating colors divided by spokelike tubes. Star cut A many-pointed star incised into the base of a weight for decoration.

Stardust cane A cane composed of tiny starshaped rods separated by clear glass, usually surrounding a geometric cane center.

Stardust ground A ground made up of white star rods.

Star paperweight A weight with an overall star-shaped design, a Clichy specialty.

Stave A flattened glass tube, used to form basket motifs and Clichy roses.

Strawberry cut (or diamond cut) A set of grid cuts made in the base of a paperweight.

Striae (or striations) Streaks of glass of different optical quality caught in the dome of a paperweight, giving the glass an undesirable sugary7 or grainy appearance.

Sulphide (or cameo) Athree-dimensional ceramic medallion or portrait plaque used as a decorative enclosure in paperweights or other glass objects.

Swirl weight A paperweight design with opaque colored rods of two or three colors radiating in pinwheel fashion from a central millefiori floret, giving it a flat appearance.

Table facet A flat circular cut on the top of a weight.

Tank See furnace

Ta/./.a (or wafer dish) A dish supported by a stem or foot, the bowl or base of which is made of millefiori canes, used to hold wax seals.

Template (or disc) In paperweight production, a small cast iron disc on w hich the motif is carefully arranged before being picked up. Thumbprint cut An oval, elongated concave window.

Tongs See pincers

Torch See blowtorch

Torsad e (or twist) An opaque glass thread

loosely wound around a filigree core, usually

found near the base of a mushroom weight.

Trefoil A garland with three loops.

Tricolore Originally the red-white-blue French flag of 1789; later, paperweights with flowers in these three colors, popular during the Revolution of 1848.

Triple overlay See overlay Tuft See mushroom

Turban weight A paperweight of unknown origin featuring a large turbanlike cushion with a single, large bubble surrounded by small bubbles uniformly placed.

Twist See torsade

Upright bouquet Three-dimensional grouping of canes and stylized lampwork flowers set on a bed of leaves.

Upset muslin See lace

Venetian ball A Venetian scrambled paperweight made of millefiori leftovers that have been rolled into a ball and covered with glass.

Waffle cut A set of wide perpendicular cuts made in the base of a paperweight.

WTiorl rod A millefiori cane component with a spiral cross section; often used as the center of a cluster of star rods. Window A facet on an overlay paperweight.

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