Paperweight Geeks

April 6, 2021 by Donna from MyOBT 7 Comments

The Paperweight Collectors Alliance celebrates the magic of glass paperweights and the talented artists who create them. Do I my papers tend to fly around? No, they do not. And in this age of offices in skyscrapers with windows that don’t open, paperweights have moved from usable objects to mostly decorative ones. That doesn’t mean they’re not fantastic!

“Glass paperweights first gained popularity in the mid-19th century after being displayed at various expositions, most notably the Great Exhibition of 1851 at London’s Crystal Palace. Marvels of artistic skill and also affordable, paperweights soon became the ultimate desk accessory, bringing flowers and other natural subjects that perished in the winter into the home — there may not have been flowers in the garden, but they could still surround you as you wrote your letters. Collectors during this period included Colette, Oscar Wilde and Empress Eugenie of France.
“By the turn of the century, interest had waned, but in the 1950s artists like Paul Ysart and Charles Kaziun sought to rediscover the secrets to making glass weights, paving the way for hyper-realistic paperweight artists like Paul Stankard.”
– Paperweight Collection Guide by Christie’s

You can see all the fantastic paperweights posted by the Paperweight Collectors Alliance on the group’s wonderful Instagram.