What cities come to mind when you think of glassmaking? Venice, Italy? Waterford, Ireland?
Sandwich, Massachusetts? How about Millville, New Jersey? Millville had a thriving glass industry by the 1860s. Many glassworkers were immigrants, familiar with techniques like lampworking and millefiori that had been practiced around the Mediterranean for hundreds of years.
Working in the Millville factories, they developed and experimented with new techniques, often by making paperweights. These paperweights were not production items; glassworkers made them on their own time to try out techniques or to sell or give to friends and family. They were part folk art, part glass art.
The most famous design was the “Millville rose,” which had a realistic-looking rose with crimped petals and leaves inside the clear glass ball. Another design, made by pulling chips of colored glass, is said to be inspired by a lily flower, but is today called the “umbrella.” The two paperweight inkwells pictured here, which sold together for $256 at Alderfer Auction Company, have the umbrella design.
Q: I have a color print by Currier & Ives. How can I tell if it is an original?
