Paperweight
A paperweight ( English : paperweight, French : presse papiers, Italian : fermacarte) is a small, heavy object that is supposed to prevent paper from flying away on the desk. Paperweights are often decorative, for example as miniature models of well-known buildings or as snow globes . Sometimes they are also used as an advertising medium , sometimes combined with the function as a writing instrument holder . Glass paperweights in particular are therefore also collector's items that are traded in auctions.
Often, however, other objects such as statuettes, stones or sea snail shells are also repurposed as paperweights.
Glass paperweight
The glass paperweights have been sought-after collector's items since their presentation by the Venetian Pietro Bigaglia (1786–1876) at the 1845 World Exhibition in Vienna. Inspired by his products, famous manufacturers in Murano (Italy), Schreiberhau (Silesia), Polaun (Bohemia), Baccarat and Saint-Louis-lès-Bitche (France), Wheadstone (England), Cambridge (Massachusetts), Lauscha ( Germany) and elsewhere high-quality "paperweights" with a wide variety of decors, especially the popular "millefiori paperweights". Between 1880 and 1940, the so-called "battered" paperweights , that is, made during breaks or after work , experienced their heyday in the glassworks of Europe, especially in Bavaria , in the triangle of Bohemia , Silesia , Saxony and especially in Lusatia . They are a special form of folk art in the age of industrialization , intensified between the two world wars.
Today the glass letterweights or paperweights (this term has also become established in the German-speaking world) are mostly made by English and American glass artists in small studios.
The Museum of Imagination in Bernried on Lake Starnberg has a collection of around 3,000 glass paperweights, most of which come from the estate of the art collector Lothar Buchheim. Other larger collections are located in the Wertheim Glass Museum (parts of the former Peter von Brackel collection), Cottbus City Museum and the Klippenstein Castle Museum in Radeberg.
Trivia
In Fyodor Dostoyevsky's novel " The Karamazov Brothers " a murder with a cast-iron paperweight plays an important role.
In the novel 1984 by George Orwell , a glass paperweight, including a coral, serves as an important symbol.
The Yucatán andesite sample , which was used to determine the age of the Chicxulub crater , had been used for years as a paperweight by a geologist for the PEMEX oil company .
In the municipal and Løgting elections in the Faroe Islands , the pelvic bones of pilot whales (" Grindahvalur ") are traditionally used as a complaint due to the large-format electoral sheets and the harsh, windy climate during the vote counting process. Since the Faroese are very traditional, the Løgting elections of January 30, 1940 caused a scandal and an election challenge by the defeated Fólkaflokkurin , as the Grindahvalur were not used, which, according to the Fólkaflokkurin, led conservative voters to boycott the election. The Supreme Court did not uphold the challenge.
Literature (selection)
- Peter von Brackel: Paperweights. Historicism, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, 1842 until today . Especially post-classical folk art paperweights from Bohemia, Germany and other European countries. Morsak-Verlag, Grafenau 1997.
- Monika Flemming and Peter Pommerencke : Paperweights. Glass paperweight . Battenberg Verlag, Augsburg 1993. (Battenberg Antiques Catalog.)
- Bernd-Ingo Friedrich : Historical paperweights - paperweights from Brandenburg and Saxony . Verlag Gunter Oettel, Görlitz - Zittau 2019.
- Reinhard Haller: "Battered glass". Custom glass making . Popular glasses in the Bavarian Forest and other European glassworks landscapes Morsak-Verlag, Grafenau 1985.
- Rudolf Holbach (ed.): World behind glass: paperweights as collectibles on cultural history . Accompanying publication to the special exhibition in Jever Castle Museum from November 13th to December 5th, 2010. University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg 2010, DNB 1011048868 , urn : nbn: de: gbv: 715-oops-11354 ( [1] [PDF; accessed June 20, 2018]).
- Walter Spiegl: Paperweights. Paperweights from the classical period around 1850 to the present day . Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1996.
