Paperweights
Like the invention of glass itself, it is not known exactly when or where glass paperweights were first made. It is clear that the earliest glass paperweights were sulphides—sculpted ceramic cameos encased in crystal. The sulphide technique, which was first developed in France during the 1750s, was refined and perfected in England by Apsley Pellatt during the early 1800s. These glass incrustations usually commemorated important individuals and historic events; they were used to ornament paperweights as well as a variety of other glass objects [1.5]. Sulphides continued to be popular throughout the nineteenth century.
Although sulphides were the earliest type of paperweights made, the techniques used in millefiori paperweight making predate them. The term “millefiori,” meaning thousand flowers, appears first not during the Renaissance, as has been thought, but in early nineteenth-century Germany. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the term first appears in the English language in 1849, when Apsley Pellatt used it in his Curiosities of Glass Making, dated that year. The technique, however, has its origins in ancient Egypt. There it was utilized in mosaics, jewelry, and a variety of functional glass objects. During the early 1500s the Venetians revitalized and perfected the art of millefiori, producing some of the earliest millefiori- style paperweights.
In a tantalizing statement in De Situ Urbis Vene- tae, written about 1495, Marc Antonio Sabellico spoke of the manufacture of glass in his native Venice:
A famous invention first proved that glass might feign the whiteness of crystal, soon as the wits of men are active and not slothful in adding something to inventions, they began to turn the material into
variouscolours and numberless forms
There is no kind of precious stone which cannot be imitated by the industry7 of the glassworkers, a sweet contest of nature and of man . . . But, consider to whom did it first occur to include in a little ball all the sorts of flowers which clothe the meadows in spring.
1.6 Antique Baccarat concentric millefiori
Some believe that the major catalyst for production of paperweights in France came from the Exhibition ol Austrian Industry held in Vienna in 1845. It was there that Pietro Bigaglia of Venice, a Muranese glassworker, displayed his millefiori paperweights. Eugene Peligot, a professor at the Conservatoire des Arts etMetiers in Paris attended the Exhibition on behalf of the Parisian Chamber of Commerce and reported on Bigaglia’s weights when he returned to France:
Amongst the principal exhibits is that of Mr. Bigaglia of Venice . . . one notices round shaped millefioripaperw eights of transparent glass in which are inserted quantities of small tubes of all colors and forms assembled so as to look like a multitude of florets.
1.7 Baccarat tazza dated 1846
A few weights bearing Pietro Bigaglia’s initials are in existence today f 1.8]. These weights are usually abstract in design, containing bits and pieces of colored glass rods and occasionally portrait canes with initials, gondolas, or people.
Although the Exhibition of Austrian Industry undoubtedly played a role in the popularization of paperweights, some scholars believe that the millefiori paperweight process was being developed concurrently in Venice, France, and Bohemia during the early 1840s. Early Saint Louis weights that include 1845 dates surpass Venetian pieces of the same period, suggesting parallel rather than sequential development.
Bohemia (now in Czechoslovakia) was well known for its millefiori decorated objects as early as the 1830s. Although the earliest date found in Bohemian paperweights is 1848, the technical sophistication of these weights suggests that earlier pieces were being produced.
Perhaps historians will never agree on the exact time and place of the paperw eight origin. There is, however, no dispute about which country assumed the lead in paperw eight production. By 1845 France was the undeniable paperweight center of the world. There, most of the pieces created during the twenty-year classic period of paperweight making (1840-1860) were produced. In a remarkably short period of time, the French glass factories of Baccarat, Saint Louis, and Clichy had all perfected the millefiori technique. In addition, and of no less importance, they introduced and developed the lampwork style, to which the Pantin factory contributed some remarkable examples. The high quality and the range of styles and design motifs created in France during this time have never been surpassed.
English glass factories were quick to imitate the techniques and motifs of the French makers. Soon millefiori paperweights of considerable excellence were being produced by factories in London and Birmingham.
In the United States, the production of paperweights in large numbers did not begin until after the New York Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, held in New York City in 1853. Many of
1.8 Venetian paperweight by Pietro Bigaglia
the early American weights were imitative of the French style: scrambled, close packed millefiori, and concentric in clear glass or on latticinio ground. However, the American makers were quick to contribute their own distinctive styles and techniques to paperweight making, particularly in the area of lampworking. In the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company and the New England Glass Company paperweight production was a regular part of company merchandise at this time.
After about 1860, interest in paperweights tapered off in France, Britain, and other European countries. It continued to flourish in America, with some production continuing intermittently into the early part of this century.
By the 1950s, paperweight making was on the verge of becoming a lost art. But the history of weights was irreversibly altered by one man and a bird in a nest.
Paul Jokelson relates, “In 1925 I was browsing along the Rue des Saints Peres in Paris, where antique shops abound, when I discovered what I later learned was a paperweight. I bought the “Bird in the Nest” because I liked it. But the dealer could tell me only a little about it, and I was intrigued. I went on to search for other paperweights in order to find out more about them. That is how I started, maybe how everyone starts. One paperweight and then it is done!”
Jokelson was soon on his way to collecting antique French paperweights and then sulphide
1.9 Paul Jokelson
weights. In 1953, by which time he was an importer and avid collector, he wanted a sulphide of General Eisenhower. He approached the glass factories of Baccarat and Saint Louis with the idea of reviving the classic art. This was a difficult and challenging proposition, since paperweights had not been produced in significant numbers for more than eighty years. Artists and craftsmen spent nearly twenty years in research and experimentation rediscovering the techniques used in making sulphide, millefiori, and lampwork paperweights. Once they succeeded, interest in contemporary paperweights blossomed.
In 1955, when Jokelson published Antique French Papenveights, paperweight collecting was limited to a few hundred persons. As more knowledge became available, more people joined the ranks of collectors, and their numbers steadily grew. Other
1.10 Antique millefiori weights from (top) Baccarat, Bacchus, and Saint Louis; (bottom) New England Glass Company, Clichy, and Bohemia
glass factories, such as Perthshire in Scotland, joined Baccarat and Saint Louis in producing fine quality modern paperweights. In addition, individual glass artists working in their own studios infused a new creativity and technology into the art of paperweight making.
The early pioneers in the paperweight movement had to overcome a shortage of materials, gaps in the body of knowledge, and other major stumbling blocks. But today, with the easy availability of colored and clear glass, modern tools, and vast improvements in glass and furnace technology7, they have the opportunity to improve on the past. Artists are bringing modern motifs to this