St. Louis Paperweight
date: label: date made
content: 1845-1867
name: label: maker
content: St. Louis
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: Glass production at Saint Louis was authorized by Louis XV in 1767. By 1782 the firm was creating high quality glass crystal, progressing into pressed glass in the 1800s. St. Louis produced paperweights from 1845 to about 1867.
label: Description (Brief)
content: A blue, double Clematis is suspended over a ground formed by an overlay of amber-colored glass in this faceted St. Louis paperweight.
place: label: place made
content: France: Lorraine
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
label: Exhibition
content: Wonderplace
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Aaron and Lillie Straus
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CE.60.111
label: catalog number
content: 60.111
label: accession number
content: 211475
objectType: label: Object Name
content: paperweight
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass, transparent (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 5/8 in x 2 3/32 in; 4.1275 cm x 5.334 cm