Paperweights
by: Sibylle Jargstorf
1991, Schiffer Publishing, West Chester, PA
224 pages, $69.95 hardbound.
flyleaf: “Old books on glass paperweights are shattered by this beautiful new presentation of previously unknown facts.
The author, Sibylle Jargstorf, is a highly respected glass historian whose training in chemistry and linguistics have enabled her to read every known reference, both published and private, relating to the developing glass industry in Europe. Her facts and conclusions, therefore, are fresh and pertinent to the timeless question: How was that made? She dispels myths and proposes documented new explanation to correctly identify and date glass paperweights.
From the invention of these paperweights in the mid-nineteenth century in Italy, to the Central European mountains where the glass industry thrives to many famous glass factories, and presently to international studio artists, paperweights are seen here in their continual evolution reflecting technological and artistic advances.
The book, Paperweights, presents a chronological explanation of paperweights from Italy, to Czechoslovakia, Bohemia, France, the British Islands, Scandinavia and America. Hundreds of beautiful examples are captured in over 450 color photographs, period catalogs and historical documents.
Here are Venetian millefiori, and Czechoslovakian lampwork paperweights, Bohemian overlay, French Baccarat, Clichy and St. Louis weights, and Scandinavian and Scottish factory and studio weights in profusion.
The sheer variety of ingenious glassworking techniques which are displayed in Paperweights makes them fascinating objects to appreciate study and collect.
A delight to see and hold, these beautiful little glass treasures are even more fascinating to study for their history is part of both the economic development of glass and the political history of Europe.
Sibylle Jargstorf, is a trained chemist from Braunschweig, Germany. She has conducted her extensive original research for this book among old Latin, French, Italian, German and English documents as well as with many contemporary makers of glass paperweights, among them very old Bohemian makers.”
