Rare 1845 Saint Louis Carpet Ground

Rare 1845 Saint Louis Carpet Ground

The L. H. Selman Fall Auction is about to launch. Initial bids will begin on October 19th and end on November 2nd.

Current Auction Catalog

For this auction, our blockbuster piece is an antique Saint Louis with a small menagerie of silhouette canes and accompanying 1845 date cane that quite alters a previous theory. The common assumption so far has been that the first silhouette canes appeared with the Baccarat introduction of the much-fêted Gridel canes in 1847. So, perhaps this Saint Louis, our Lot #1, will inspire some interesting discussion. That would be a fine thing.

Mike Hunter Free Rider

Mike Hunter Free Rider

Another interesting piece is our Lot #7. It is a very beautiful Baccarat cabbage rose, which is not to be confused with a Baccarat thousand-petaled rose. The cabbage rose has ruffled petals, as opposed to the flat petals of its cousin, and represents about 9% of Baccarat rose production while the thousand-petaled rose makes up the remaining 91%. Roses were created in equal numbers of pink and red. Ours is a luscious red.

For the last several auctions we have found ourselves with an embarrassment of riches – antique riches, specifically. Consignments arrive in waves, sometimes overwhelmingly modern and sometimes antique. As luck would have it, we are particularly flush with antiques at present and supply and demand, as we know, drive the market. I suggest that those of you who have been too shy to venture into the delirious realm of 19th century glass paperweights might want to pluck up some courage and step into a time machine. Reserves sometimes take surprising and drastic turns.

Murano Super Magnum End of Day

Murano Super Magnum End of Day

A particularly distinguished collection, that of C. Frank Kireker, whose name many of you will recognize, has turned up one of a very limited number of modern Saint Louis super-magnum piedouches. These are extraordinary feats! Produced to honor Paul Jokelson’s years of dedication and accomplishment in the world of paperweights, this design is thirty inches in circumference, includes five hundred feet of canes, is 9 ½” tall and weighs 55 pounds! Very few people in the world have the privilege of owning a piece of this grandeur. Other examples of this edition are appropriately housed at the Corning Museum of Glass and at the Art Institute of Chicago.

On a less sophisticated note but one that is nevertheless really good (read “fun”), this auction is peppered with pumpkins and goblins for Halloween and with candy canes and stars for the holidays. We have a motorcycle rider, little weights with tiny bird’s nests, frogs, creepy-crawly critters, sedate millefiori Perthshires and rollicking, giant Muranos. Of course, as you have come to expect, we have the best representation of lampwork artists you will ever find at auction anywhere. We hope you’ll tune in.

Current Auction Catalog


The Art of the PaperweightWelcome to “The Art of The Paperweight” by Lawrence H. Selman. We are starting to make important books like this one available, as a free online service to the paperweight community, and for all the newcomers who we hope will begin to share our passion for fine glass art paperweights. Look for more paperweight eBooks in the coming months. Here is a brief excerpt, please read and share as you see fit.

“It is not known exactly why French glass factories pursued the making of paperweights with such intensity and vigor during a short twenty-year period in the mid-1800s. Perhaps the factories saw paperweights as a means of showing off their glassmaking skills or as a way of luring prospective customers from other glass houses. Perhaps these objects, which contain intricate millefiori designs and carefully constructed lampwork flowers and fruit, were a way glass craftsmen could exercise their creative and technical skills and experiment on a small scale.

Whatever the reasons may have been behind the making of paperweights, we are gifted with a unique body of work, created over a relatively short period of time, which nonetheless expresses a creative and technical peak in glassmaking history.

Glass paperweights from the classic period (1840-1860) have captivated collectors and historians for many years. These works have also inspired contemporary glassmakers and artists. We are indeed fortunate to be living in a time when paperweight making is experiencing a strong revival. A new generation of paperweight makers is carrying on in the classic tradition while utilizing modern technology and infusing their work with a contemporary vitality.”

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by Lawrence Selman
The Art of the Paperweight Lawrence H. Selman

© 1988 by Paperweight Press. Santa Cruz, California. All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Selman, Lawrence, 1938—