PAPERWEIGHTS

[KentOhio]

They do look Chinese, but the millefiore one might be from Murano as well. 1950s or newer, I'd guess.

 

[Poison_Us]

All I can say is WOW. Paul's work is PHENOMENAL!

Your paperweights reminded me of this segment from antiques roadshow:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/video/200901F01.html

The lady giving the history of the 4 pieces in the segment is from this company:

http://lilliannassau.com/

Unfortunately, I don't think you can get any info without a fee, but you could try.

 

[LC]

I believe you are right about China Red . I used to go to a lot of auctions . I can not remember the time period , but it seemed all of a sudden the market was flooded with paperweights of this variety . I watched people give quite a bit of money for them in the beginning thinking they were old . Seemed obvious to me being they seemed to appear by the dozen at some sales . They are indeed pretty to look at though .

 

[RED Matthews]

Well L.C. and all of you. I will have to get back into my books I guess. There were some early paperweights made in South Jersey that had flakes of a yellow glass material near the bottom background that was to make it look like the fire in the old peet bogs of Germany, so they were no doubt created by the German glass workers.
There was also an early glasshouse in northern Jersey that made a lot of paper weights for several years.
The process of making them is quite interesting. They placed the glass in a mold and then placed the design factors into the glass, and/or also placed the multiflora slices of combined different glass rod segments that were pulled together and sliced. At this time they also inserted the little bubbles in the glass and then the flakes of background glass as desired. After all this the bottom glass of the paperweight was added and the assembly flattened, removed from the mold and annealed for its' future of fascination. Another spiell of TMI, like I usually do. They are fascinating regardless.
RED Matthews

.

 

[RED Matthews]

Hello again, I went back in my word files and found this saved information:

DEVILS FIRE PAPERWEIGHTS A South Jersey Folklore There was a natural phenomena found in the woods of South Jersey that stimulated the imagination of glass workers for the creation of DEVIL’S FIRE paperweights, perfume bottles, ink wells and mantel pieces. In the swamps of South New Jersey, there often appear to be moving bluish flames, which have been referred to as fox fire or devil’s fire. There can also be a fluorescent glow in rotting wood or mushrooms of the South Jersey woods, which is also referred to as fox fire or devil’s fire. The Devil’s Fire paperweights were created by glass workers to imitate these natural phenomena. Devil’s Fire paperweights are known to have been made at the Whitall Tatum Glass Works in Millville, NJ about 1860. They were probably made on occasion at Whitall Tatum until about 1910. Many of the glass workers at Whitall Tatum came from Germany, where there was a long history of observing the Devil’s Fire in nature. The Devil’s Fire paperweights made at
Whitall Tatum have not been associated with certain glass workers in the same was as the Millville Rose have been, even though he same glass workers made both. The Devil’s Fire motif continued to be made by other glass workers into the 1970’s, but generally only in South Jersey leading to the thought that the Devil’s Fire is a part of the South Jersey Folklore. These cold flames are thought of as underground flames or the little peoples (fairy) flames because they are cold instead of being normally hot red-orange flame. Since there is little scientifically know about these light sources, they have become know as Fox Fire or Devil’s Fire through the years. Hence, the Devil’s Fire motif was created in paperweights, by the glass workers, to symbolize the natural phenomena. The motif is generally a series of random upward points or spikes of colored glass within the clear glass. The motif is usually created by spiking the mix of colors into the clear glass with an ice pick. The initial clear glass is dipped onto the color chips, which are distributed on a marver. The color chips adhere to the clear molten glass. After re-heating, and adding additional clear glass, the motif of cold flames is developed by spiking the flakes to position and working the glass. The choice of color chips in earlier weights included dark and light blue, dark and light green, white, yellow, red and maybe light pink. Very little orange was used. A Devil’s Fire motif is not as difficult to accomplish, as a Millville Rose because there in no definitive form that has to be accomplished as in a rose.
RED M.

 

[RED Matthews]

third try:

I tried to insert a picture of the bottom of a devils fire paper weight. It obviously didn't work.

 

[LC]

That was a good read Red , thanks for the follow up . I have always wanted to visit a glass house and watch the make the various products they produce , but have yet to have had the chance to do so . Maybe some day