Flowers have always been used as decoration on glass and ceramics. Sometimes the flowers are botanically correct and can be identified by collectors. Sometimes the flowers are imaginary.
Early flower prints of large bouquets included flowers that could never have blossomed at the same time, although they were pictured together. Paperweight artists have been making weights with enclosed glass flowers since the 19th century.
| On the block
Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States. Prices vary in different locations because of local economic conditions. Salt and pepper shakers, Washington Monument and U.S. Capitol, gold trim, Ceramic Arts Studio, 4 inches, $20. Political button, “Minnesota Women for Humphrey,” black, pink and white, celluloid, 1954, 21/4 inches, $185. Roseville hanging planter, Gardenia pattern, ocher, embossed white flowers, green petals, 6 inches, $210. Holland Butter banner, graphic of two Dutch children standing on pound of butter, gold ground, 30 x 37 inches, $250. Celluloid dresser set, pearl-ized yellow, butterscotch, black trim, 1930s, 11 pieces, $310. Royal Doulton plate, “Mary Arden’s Cottage,” Shakespeare Series, 1922, 101/4 inches, $370. Amoeba-style cocktail table, free-form inset glass top, bleached ash and birch veneer, 1950s, 52 x 30 x 15 inches, $515. Boston &Sandwich glass candlestick, apple green, petal-form socket on columnar square-step base, 1850-65, 9 inches, $560. Steiff Red Riding Hood doll, pressed felt swivel head, black shoe-button eyes, red cape, 101/2 inches, $910. Appliqued quilt, Sunbonnet Sue, red and white, picket finch border, 1800s, 84 x 88 inches, $1,200. |
One of the most famous glass factories in France – La Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat – opened in 1765. It began making paperweights in the 1840s, then stopped in the 1880s, although a few pansy and millefiori weights were made in the 1930s.
There was a revival of interest in paperweights in the late 1950s, and Baccarat again made many of them. The pansy was the favored Baccarat flower, and about 25 percent of their flower weights pictured them. Most showed a single flower, with bright green leaves and often a bud. The most common type had a pansy with buttercup-yellow and dark-purple petals.
Baccarat and other glass factories made weights with many different flowers, like primrose, clematis, dahlia and buttercups, and also made them with lizards, ducks, fish and many types of fruit. The only vegetable weight we have seen was made in the United States. It pictured carrots, turnips, radishes and asparagus.
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