Paperweights, art glass and objets d’art
The Object
Collective
A journal for those who collect, study and appreciate glass.
The Object Collective is a journal for glass — paperweights, art glass, and objets d’art, examined with the same care given the object itself. We publish guides for new and returning collectors, notes on individual pieces, and observations from the market.
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Recent Posts
A research-led introduction for new collectors: the main kinds of collectable glass, the vocabulary that describes them, how to judge condition and attribution, and where
A research-led introduction for new collectors: what glass paperweights are, the main techniques to recognise, how to read a base, and how to keep records
The pontil, the polish and the star cut are a record of how a weight was finished, and finishing habits belong to workshops. What to
Condition, attribution, rarity and fashion — the four things that decide what a paperweight is worth, and why a price on its own tells you
Millefiori is Italian for a thousand flowers, and the name describes the effect rather than the method. The technique long predates the paperweight (it was
Identification is a process of elimination, not recognition. Very few weights announce themselves. Most are narrowed down by a series of small observations, none of