New England Glass Company Paperweight
date: label: date made
content: 1861-1880
name: label: maker
content: New England Glass Company
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: In the 1700s, paperweights made from textured stone or bronze were part of the writer’s tool kit, which also included a quill pen and stand, inkpot, and blotter. By the mid-1800s, decorative paperweights produced by glassmakers in Europe and the United States became highly desired collectibles.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Decorative glass paperweights reflected the 19th-century taste for intricate, over-the-top designs. Until the spread of textiles colorized with synthetic dyes, ceramics and glass were among the few objects that added brilliant color to a 19th-century Victorian interior. The popularity of these paperweights in the 1800s testifies to the sustained cultural interest in hand craftsmanship during an age of rapid industrialization.
label: Description (Brief)
content: The New England Glass Company in Cambridge, Massachusetts was founded about 1818 by Deming Jarves along with three wealthy businessmen, and probably began producing paperweights by the mid 1850s. In 1888 the business moved to Ohio, under the name Libbey Glass Company.
label: Description (Brief)
content: A red and white double overlay with fleur-de-lis cutting encases this New England Glass Company paperweight. Inside is a posy made of three millefiori, leaves, and a double garland on a latticinio (latticework) ground. Millefiore paperweights, first manufactured in Venice, consist of sections from rods of colored glass encased in a clear, colorless sphere. By the mid-nineteenth century, glass factories elsewhere in Europe were emulating the millefiore style.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Massachusetts, Cambridge
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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content: Paperweights
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Mrs. Florence E. Bushee
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.66.18
label: catalog number
content: 66.18
label: accession number
content: 268356
label: collector/donor number
content: 125
objectType: label: Object Name
content: paperweight
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass, transparent (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: cased (joint piece production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: cut (joint piece production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: millifiori (joint piece production method/technique)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 3 5/32 in; 8.001 cm