Antique Paperweights

_The first American furnace for making lead glass is supposed to have been built by Deeming Jarves at the New England Glass Works, East Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1818. This company made many molded and candy type fruit weights like those made at Sandwich, but all its blown fruit weights were made at Cambridge. The finest of the paperweights which came from the New England factory were made by Francois Pierre, who came from Baccarat; and by another workman named John Hopkins, whose output was large up to the year 1874.

The New England Works had a great variety of molds for flowers,vanimals, letters, figures, and the filigree rods and stars, all of which were combined to provide the end­lessly varied patterns in the weights.

Below are shown a few current auctions for New England Glass Works Items.  Not all are paperweights, there are not always any for sale.  If you click one of the links that specific auction will open in a new windowm,  I get a small commission if you buy something.  Text continues after the auction listings.

_From the New England factory came millefiori paperweights as well as apples, pears, and ceramic subjects; and at least one millefiori weight bearing the date 1854. The blown apple and pear weights were fashioned by blowing the glass in the tube in such a way that the fruit came out red on one side and  yellow or greeon the other. In shaping the glass as it came from the tube it was expanded to the size desired, drawn in at the end and finished with small pieces of dark glass to form such objects as blossoms and stem. The expansion caused by the fusing of the two colors in the tube contributed to an interesting result. After blowing, the fruit section was fused to a round crystal mold which formed the base. Somctimes Mr. Pierre added leaves to his apples and pears, and these helped to make his pieces distinctive,as shown below.

_New England began making ceramics about the time of the London Exposition, but their cameos failed to achieve the fine appearance of those made by the French.  The effect is decidedly duller. Most widely known of the ceramics produced at this factory was the silhouette of Victoria and Albert (Illustration 61), al­though their weights using the head of Washington and Lincoln rank their very best. It should perhaps be noted that the Gillerland Company also produced a paperweight using the head of Queen Victoria in profile, similar to that in the New England weight just men­tioned. Some excellent ceramics were also made by Washington Beck during the seventies at the Curling and Pierce factory in Pittsburgh. These medallions, however, never equalled the fine workmanship of those made in France and England.  They were, in fact, rather crude in comparison. These are not often encountered.