Paperweights and other glass curiosities
by: E. M. Elville
1954, Country Life Ltd., London, England First edition
or 1967 edition, Spring Books, London, England
118 pages, $30. hardbound.
flyleaf from first edition: “This is the first book by an English writer that is principally devoted to glass paperweights. A serious study of these enchanting objects has long been needed, for paperweights, which the Victorians enjoyed at the cost of a few shillings, have in recent years changed hands in the sale-room at prices well over the three-, and occasionally four-figure mark, and continue to do so.
Mr. Elville, author of English Tableglass and English and Irish Cut Glass, has here given the collector of paperweights all he will want to know about them. He describes the history and technique of their manufacture. He discusses the weight that came from the famous French factories of Baccarat, St Louis and Clichy, and those made in England to the present day. He offers a thorough classification and description of the weights—a most important feature of the book—gives an indication of their current values.
And there is more. Using the word ‘curiosity’ in an older sense to mean a thing ingeniously and carefully the work of a craftsman’s hands, he has added chapters on several types of glassware that collectors everywhere seek and highly prize. There are pages on millefiori and incrusted ware other than paperweights, and there are chapters on Nailsea and Bristol glass, Glass Lamps, Candlesticks, Candelabra and Chandeliers, Mirrors, Drinking Glasses, Engraved Commemoration Glasses and on a number of such bygone creations as wineglass coolers, punch- and toddy-lifters, yards-of-ale, and coloured lustres.
Readers of Mr Elder’s earlier books on glassware will find in this the same merits as before. He is an enthusiast, whose enthusiasms are under the discipline of respect for the facts and a fidelity to his sources. He has a wide knowledge of the techniques of glassmaking. He is himself a knowledgeable collector of old glass. And he is a scrupulous writer with a gift for the clear exposition of complicated technical processes.
His text is bountifully illustrated. In addition to a colour-plate there are sixteen half-tone plates which show 36 paperweights, and more than 70 of the other glass ‘curiosities’ discussed in the text.”
