Footed Paperweight
date: label: date made
content: 1800s
name: label: maker
content: unknown
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: This glass footed paperweight features silhouette canes and stands on a star-cut base with thirty two rays, and was likely made in Bohemia.
label: Description (Brief)
content: There may have been as many as 600 active glassworks in Bohemia, the area now known primarily as the Czech Republic, by 1835. The earliest evidence of paperweights made in the area dates to 1886. Bohemian paperweights are known for their bright colors.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Czech Republic: Bohemia
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
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.65.462
label: catalog number
content: 65.462
label: accession number
content: 264964
label: collector/donor number
content: 78
objectType: label: Object Name
content: paperweight
label: Object Name
content: paperweight, footed
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 1/16 in x 2 13/16 in; 10.287 cm x 7.112 cm