The world hasn’t really been very kind to paperweights lately. We’ve used heavy objects to hold down papers on our desks since the dawn of paper in China in around 105AD. All manner of stone, wood and other weighty materials were used, but it wasn’t until the 1840s that the decorative glass paperweight as we know them were developed. French makers such as Baccarat, Clichy, and St Louis were inspired by Venetian precedents to develop the recognisable clear glass domed paperweight, the dome being used to magnify an intricate design of ‘millefiori’ (a thousand flowers) sections of multicoloured glass canes, or other designs.
The late 19thC saw the combination of a huge boom in personal and business documentation, a wider spread of general wealth with the rise of the middle classes, and a consumer-driven desire for finer accessories. After the late 19thC boom in France, production and innovation moved to Scotland and the US, with makers such as Paul Ysart and Paul Stankard respectively pushing boundaries of design and technique. During the ‘Great Collecting Boom’ of the 1970s-90s, paperweights also became popular items to be collected and studied, pretty much internationally. But that seems to have been the last hurrah.
The arrival of minimalist interiors in the ‘90s, general changes in fashion and taste, the arrival of the Digital Age, and the recent drop in collecting as a hobby paired with the various cost of living crises have rendered these beautiful and expertly crafted items almost entirely undesirable and unwanted. As such, all but the very best are largely left to languish, unloved, on the shelves of charity and antiques shops.
So plastic ones must be tantamount to rubbish right? Not always. I came across this plastic paperweight of a scarab recently. I bought it maybe 30 years ago for a couple of quid and then I put it in a box and forgot about it. That’s one of the great things about a collection built up over years or decades, you keep rediscovering things! ‘New’ things without spending money – yay!
Looking at this, I don’t think all is lost for the paperweight. And this plastic paperweight punches quite a story…
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