International Paperweight Society
Did you know. . .
. . . the most expensive paperweight in the world sold for $258,000 in 1990?
The Clichy Basket of Flowers surpassed "the bird in the nest" which had just
sold a few months earlier for $186,000.
. . . a paperweight was found in the cornerstone of a bombed-out church at
Baccarat after World War II? The paperweight contained the date 1853 the year
the church was originally constructed.
. . . a palace in Udaipur, India once contained a wall studded with hundreds of
expensive antique paperweights. The paperweights have since been replaced
with low quality Chinese weights.
. . .the first golden age of paperweight making lasted less than twenty years?
From 1845 to 1860 the French factories of Baccarat, Clichy and Saint Louis
created pieces that have had a permanent impact on the glass art world.
. . . besides his interest in paperweights, artist Randall Grubb has a passion for
cars. His custom car work has even been featured in Hotrod magazine.
. . . Charles Kaziun, one of the early pioneers of modern paperweight making in
the 1950s, produced his paperweights with a stock of glass created in the late
1800s.
. . .Baccarat produced millefiori silhouette canes based on the paper cut-outs of
a nine-year old boy? The Gridel silhouettes have become a famous factory
trademark.
. . .antique millefiori cog canes with fourteen teeth are generally believed to
have been produced at the Saint Louis factory? This is a handy hint for
identifying the maker of an antique weight.
. . .all three of the nineteenth-century French factories produced paperweights
with pansies in them? The more valuable Clichy pansy is recognizable by an
almost imperceptible green rod running through its center.
. . .when nations displayed their finest accomplishments at London's Great
Exhibition of 1851, France displayed paperweights!
