Compact and colorful, artistic and affordable, paper weights have been popular with collectors since the mid 19th century. Glassmakers individually create the thick, domed case which serves as a magnifier for the figures within. The most popular are Millefiori (from the Italian for thousand flowers); paperweights in which multi-colored glass canes are sliced in thin sections that resemble tiny blossoms. Another type is the sulphide paperweight, in which a figure or portrait in a white porcelain like material is embedded within the glass dome.
In the mid-19th century, some of the biggest names in art glass and high end glassware were producing beautiful paperweights. Collectors will pay anything from $100 to $600 for paperweights from Clichy, St. Louis and Baccarat.
More recent examples come from Paul Ysart, working for Montcrieff Glassworks in Scotland. His paperweights come with labels that say Monart, and can be worth $150 or more. Other glass artists include John Deacons, Charles Kazuin, Stephen Lundberg and Paul Stankard. Attributable paperweights are typically worth more especially from name artists and manufacturers, so look carefully for makers’ marks and dates, which are sometimes found on the canes.
Fugurals, whether they’re ships, animals, portraits, flowers, butterflies or the like, seem to bring the highest prices. A Charles Kazium paperweight of roses on a background of foliage can realize in excess of $1,000.