Paperweights a work of art
LIGONIER--Stroll through any office and you're bound to encounter a variety of small objects which are meant to keep desktop documents in their proper place.
These ubiquitous paperweights often include such kitschy versions as pint-size golf bags or tiny aquariums inhabited by plastic fish.
But there is an earlier tradition, dating from the 1800s, of crafting intricately-detailed glass paperweights which are now considered highly collectible works of art.
Betty Gamble of New Florence is among those who have come to appreciate the many nuances of paperweight designs, which are a miniature reflection of the era in which they were made and the interests of the artists who fashioned them.
"The color, the design and the quality of workmanship are what attract me," said Gamble.
While continuing to add to her own collection of glass paperweights, Gamble has donated many of them for display at Ligonier's branch of the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art (SAMA).
Dedicated to Gamble's late father, Walter Carlyle Shaw, the collection now contains about 170 items, including a core selection of vintage paperweights she inherited from her father.
"They're so beautiful that I thought I should share them with the general population," Gamble said, recalling her decision to donate the paperweights in 1992.
Also, Gamble noted she'd run out of space to properly display them in her home.
"I had most of them in boxes," she said. "I didn't have a place to put them all unless we built another room on our house."
Gamble doesn't mind driving to the museum to view her family's paperweights. "I always love to come here to see what's new," she said.
And she enjoys interacting with other visitors as they marvel at the paperweight exhibit.
"They can't believe there are that many kinds of paperweights, and they can't believe that everything in them is made of glass."
Glass paperweights can be formed into a variety of shapes. "I like the round ones and the egg-shaped ones," said Gamble.
But she noted the museum collection also includes glass bars shaped like measuring rules, featuring "twist" or lattice-like patterns within the glass.
Also on display are: American-made glass door stops, with chip or bubble patterns inside; a wig stand; a decanter with a ball-shaped paperweight serving as the stopper.
Pretty in pink-colored glass are several 19th century products of the defunct Boston and Sandwich Glass Co., including: a conical ornament for the fireplace mantle.
Gamble noted her father also collected paperweights produced by glass factories in Ohio, West Virginia and Indiana.
"My Dad had a lot of them, but collectors today don't seek after them."
Among the oldest and most collectible paperweights at the museum are classic millefiori (Italian for a thousand flowers) designs, which were created by several French factories from about 1845 to 1860.
"Clichy is my favorite antique (paperweight) factory," Gamble said. "I've always favored their style."
She pointed out the Clichy weights are tightly packed with internal glass design elements known as "canes"--often resembling tiny flowers. Generally, the greater the number of canes and the more finely detailed they are, the more a paperweight is prized.
Canes are created by cutting small pieces from variously colored glass rods. The pieces are arranged so that their cross sections will appear as geometric designs representing flowers or other patterns in the finished paperweight.
The cane technique was known to glassmakers in ancient Egypt and Rome, but it was first applied to paperweights by the French companies in the mid-19th century.
Gamble noted an Oregon-based company, Parabelle Glass, "still makes canes, something like Clichy."
She noted Clichy originals can be distinguished by inclusion of a trademark cane, which depicts a tiny rose. Parabelle includes a cane bearing the initials "PG."
Another common technique for adding detail to paperweights is known as "lampwork."
"It's just like working with a Bunsen burner," Gamble said, explaining the flame is used to heat small slugs of glass, which are then worked with tools into the desired shapes--a leaf, stem or petal.
According to literature compiled by SAMA, once decorative glass elements have been created, they are arranged on a metal template, heated to just below the melting point and surrounded by a metal collar.
On the end of a metal "pontil" rod, a glassmaker gathers a small ball of molten glass and lowers into the collar to pick up the preheated design.
Another coating of clear molten glass is added to form the paperweight's surrounding dome.
While still pliable, the glass weight is shaped and smoothed. Then it is evenly cooled in an annealing oven to strengthen the glass. Finally, it is ground and polished to achieve the end effect.
Through such handcrafting, even weights of a similar design, produced by the same factory, display individual differences.
One finishing technique which adds much labor and value to a paperweight is applying one or more overlays of opaque colored glass.
Gamble explained, "You dip the whole paperweight in molten glass." Once the glass is cooled, the overlay layer is ground away on selected facets of the glass, creating windows through which the paperweight's inner details are viewed.
Most paperweights are made of solid glass layers, but Gamble has donated several examples in which lampwork figures are positioned inside a central hollow cavity.
Whether hollow or solid, Gamble's paperweights offer an inviting window to miniature masterpieces of art or geometric puzzles.
A careful observer can discern images of dogs, seals or a snake captured within the glass. But the paperweight collection is more than a glass menagerie. One British piece contains a miniature likeness of the Mayflower.
The collection also includes several paperweights created by Edward Rithner of West Virginia, who was known for creating colorful striped glass bars resembling pieces of candy cane.
"His work seems to be desirable to collectors now," Gamble noted.
Gamble personally prefers designs depicting flowers and other images from the world of nature--themes which are frequently portrayed by contemporary paperweight artist Paul Stankard.
Based in Mantua, N.J., "He's the best-known of any of the artists in the paperweight world today," Gamble said.
She believes he is the first paperweight artist to include a detailed root system for the floral lampwork images he includes in his glass pieces. A few such examples are on display at the Ligonier museum.
After the first brief flowering of paperweight techniques in 19th century France, glass weights didn't become a popular item again until collectors began embracing them in the mid 20th century.
According to Gamble, there were few reference books available on the subject when her father began his collection, after he partnered with Indiana County's John S. Mack in 1911 to operate 12 G.C. Murphy stores.
Based in McKeesport, where the Shaw family lived, the chain would grow to 548 stores before its recent demise along with other well-known five-and-dime franchises.
"He always enjoyed collecting things," Gamble said of his father. "Rather than staying in the office, he liked to travel to visit the different stores. On the way back and forth, he might stop at an antique shop and buy what he could find."
In many cases, it was another paperweight to add to his growing collection, which began when someone purchased one of the glass objects for his desk.
Said Gamble, "He had a couple of them on his desk at the office, but most of the good ones were in a case he made at home with a mirror in the back."
Shaw left his collection to Gamble when he died in 1962, at age 81, but it wasn't until later in the decade that she felt the urge to start her own chapter in the collection.
She recalled the first paperweight she bought herself featured a cameo portrait of Pope Pius XII, dating from 1960. She found it at a department store in Pittsburgh.
"I can't recall why I bought it," she said, noting she is not a Catholic. But, "I knew that my Dad didn't have one that looked like that."
Such cameo pieces are credited with regenerating interest in paperweight collectibles, beginning in the 1950s. They are made by encasing a three-dimensional medallion or portrait plaque in crystal.
The first factory in America to make cameos was Bakewell, Page and Bakewell in Pittsburgh, which inserted them into the bottoms of glass tumblers around 1830.
Other cameos in the SAMA collection commemorate such historical figures as Napoleon and songstress Jenny Lind, as well as the crew of the first Apollo moon landing.
"I wish he could see all this today," she said of her late father's exhibit.
Like her father, Gamble soon became stuck on paperweights, seeking out different types created by various factories or individual artists.
"They fascinate me still," she said. "They're so colorful and interesting."
According to Gamble, there are about 32 factories and individual artists who continue to make high quality paperweights.
Gamble continues to seek choice additions to her collection or gifts for others by ordering directly from dealers and by attending paperweight conventions.
She recalled she attended her first convention in the early 1970s in Atlantic City: "Paul Stankard was just getting started then."
Another popular gathering is held every other year at Millville, N.J., once a major manufacturing site for American glass and paperweights.
"It's gotten so popular, " she said, noting attendance has grown from only 20 or 30 collectors in the 1970s to recent highs of about 300.
That show is centered around Wheaton Village, which offers a glass museum, a paperweight shop and a center where artisans can pursue traditional crafts.
A highlight during one of her trips was watching as Stankard crafted a paperweight, later auctioned for an educational charity.
Gamble has researched the history of a well-known "Millville rose" paperweight pattern.
Originally, she noted, the paperweights were given away as a free promotional item or sold to gift shops for as little at $1.
In recent decades, rarer examples of the design have gone for several thousand dollars in auctions and private sales.
A paperweight's value can be affected drastically if its is marred by damage.
"Don't hit them together," Gamble advised. "You have to handle them one at a time and carefully."
She pointed out she gently cleans the weights from time to time, hand-washing them with water, a mild soap and a soft cloth.
Unfortunately, a friend who she'd given some weights as a gift, ended up with damaged goods when she attempted to clean them in the dishwasher, damaging them. Much chagrined, the friend "was very apologetic."
Gamble noted only one of her paperweights was cracked, when a housesitter's child played with it.
Gamble has continued to give the museum additional paperweights over the years. To mark SAMA's 25th anniversary, she recently presented the museum with a paperweight titled "Tranquility Bouquet." by contemporary artist Rick Ayotte from Nashua, N.H.
Gamble's niece, Caroline Bissell, has donated a paperweight which belonged to Gamble's late sister, Louise Shaw Dill. Created by the late Charles Kaziun, it depicts a crocus bloom.
"This is an unusual piece because he was big on making roses," Gamble said of the artist.
Gamble has had a lifelong interest in art. She worked in fashion illustration in Philadelphia and later provided artwork for G.C. Murphy's advertising department. She also has mastered toleware painting.
When she and her husband moved to New Florence in 1971, Gamble joined a local arts group which met at the Ligonier Library. She soon saw a need for a larger facility to provide a showcase for art in the community.
In addition to donating the paperweight collection, she provided seed money that helped establish the SAMA museum building, along Rt. 711 just south of Ligonier, in 1997.
Nearby resident Tina Thoburn provided the two acres of land and logs to construct the building, while Charles Thatcher, a Somerset area farmer, supplied cherry wood for the interior floor.
A matching wood "wall" with various window displays houses the paperweight collection.
In addition to permanent and rotating collections of art, SAMA has a classroom area where young artists explore their talents during workshops. Three other SAMA museum sites are located in Johnstown, Altoona and Loretto.
SAMA's Ligonier site is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from 1 to 5 p.m. It is closed Mondays and holidays. For more information, call 724-238-6015. Or log on at www.sama-sfc.org.
