A number of people have asked me if you can find any (fine, interesting, antique) paperweights in Brimfield. Brimfield is a large antiques / flea market that takes place in Brimfield, Massachusetts in May, July and September. There are approximately 5,000 dealers there.
Everyone says July is not a good time to go to Brimfield. Many dealers don't bother to show up. And, since it is hot, some dealers close up by 3 or 4 in the afternoon. I went for only one day. Although I visited many, many fields that day, it was the worst bargain hunting that I have ever experienced at Brimfield. I bought only one paperweight object. Another sophisticated collector that I met also had only one weight to show for his effort.
It's not that there weren't any
paperweights. There were the usual assortment of newer Murano, Chinese,
Indian, and American paperweights. But I saw only two interesting
antiques other than the bottle below. One was a New England Glass
Company poinsetta, damaged and with separated leaves, very over priced
at $1200. Since I own a similar example
already,
I didn't spend any time haggling. I also saw a spectacular Magnum
Millville Rose for $500 that had a major annealing crack right through
the rose.
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Rare Arculus & Co. Small Paperweight Bottle with
Paperweight Stopper.. This is an early "Whitefriars" type, but has
been identified by it's unique canes as having been made by Arculus &
Co. of Birminham, England around 1920.
If you look at the larger picture you will see the distinctive arrowhead or 7/6 canes. When you look down into the bottle, it appears to have a ring of running rabbits, but that is not convincing. You can read about Arculus & Co. in the book Old English Paperweights by Robert Hall Size: 7 1/4" tall with a maximum diameter of 2 5/8". c.1920. Click on the picture to see a larger image. |
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