PaPerweight auction Press release

Paperw eight Auction P r ess R elease
Contact:
Address:
Telephone:
International calls:
E-mail:
Web:
Lawrence Selman
123 Locust Street
Santa Cruz, CA 95060
800.538.0766
831.427.1177
[email protected]
www.PWAuction.com
Part II of the Historic Alschuler Antique Paperweight
Collection Expected to Set Records at Auction
L. H. Selman Ltd., premier antique paperweight dealer, is gearing up for its forty-second semi-annual paperweight auction. “Due to
the overwhelming response to the Alschuler Auction Part I, we anticipate another exceptional sale this fall,” says Larry Selman. The
second half of the Sam and Winifred Alschuler collection includes many of the most important paperweights to appear at auction, with
individual lots valued up to $30,000.
1 L. H. Selman Ltd. Fall 2008 Paperweight Auction
1 Rare and important antique and contemporary paperweights and related objects
1 Bids taken over the internet, email, fax, and telephone
1 Last day to place initial bids: October 24, 2008
1 Information at www.pwAuction.com, 1.800.538.0766, and 831.427.1177
1 Full-color catalogue available
1 Full-color photos available
Comments on important pieces:
The sale includes an extremely rare and important pair of nineteenth-century Clichy vases,
representing the only examples of a pair known to be in a private collection. One vase is
identified with a pink, white and purple “C” signature cane, while its companion bears a dark
purple and white “C” signature cane, as well as a rarely seen turquoise, white, pink and blue
“CLICHY” cane. According to noted paperweight authority George Kulles, these magnificent
vases were among the Alschuler’s favorite objects and were prominently displayed in their
sitting room. (Two other similar examples are part of the permanent collections of the Corning
Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, and the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Neenah, WI.) Estimated
at $22,000 to $30,000.
One of the highlights of the auction will be an extremely rare antique Saint Louis magnum faceted
upright bouquet paperweight. This unusually large, expertly crafted weight is one of the few magnums
produced by the Saint Louis factory in the mid-nineteenth century. This weight was exhibited at the
Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Rare Paperweights from a Private Collection, in 1982. Estimated at
$15,000 to $25,000.
Also included in the sale is a rare antique Clichy three-flower bouquet paperweight. Clichy was
renowned for its inventive flower portrayals, no two of which are exactly alike. A fantasy flower crowns
the arrangement, with petals created from flattened complex canes — a rare and beautiful addition
to this design. The bouquet’s green stems are tied with a rarely seen white ribbon. Exhibited: Neenah,
Wisconsin, the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum, Rare Paperweights from a Private Collection, 1982. Estimated
at $13,000 to $17,000.
In addition, the auction will feature a rarely seen antique Saint Louis paneled close packed millefiori
paperweight. In quality, color and design, this weight exemplifies the mastery of glass making for which
the Saint Louis factory was renowned. The design of this weight is reminiscent of the formal gardens
surrounding the grand French châteaux. Exhibited: Neenah, Wisconsin, the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum,
Rare Paperweights from a Private Collection, 1982. Estimated at $20,000 to $26,000.
The Collectors
What began with the chance purchase of a Baccarat sulphide paperweight (a portrait of Thomas Jefferson), led to one of the
most important paperweight collections of the twentieth century — the collection of Sam and Winifred Alschuler. Sam and
Winifred began collecting in the early 1960s, with particular interest in French antique paperweights. They were discriminating
collectors, buying from the four most prominent dealers: L. H. Selman Ltd., Leo Kaplan Ltd., Pat McCauley and Alan
Tillman, as well as from Sotheby’s and Christie’s auction houses.
The Alschulers enjoyed sharing their collection. They kept their most precious antiques (their “beauties”) in a large black
and gold cabinet, which they graciously opened for the many organizations, collectors, and visitors who came from around
the world to see them. In their forty years of collecting they amassed one of the finest antique paperweight collections in the
Midwest that remained in private hands.
“I have known the Alschulers since the 1970s, and attended many of the auctions where their paperweights were bought. I am
thrilled that the family has chosen L. H. Selman Ltd. to find new homes for the paperweights in this prestigious collection.”
— Lawrence Selman
Featured Artists
The auction will also highlight the work of a number of modern paperweight makers, including Chris Buzzini, Victor
Trabucco, Randall Grubb, Perthshire Paperweights, Paul Stankard, Rick Ayotte, Delmo Tarsitano, Debbie Tarsitano, Gordon
Smith, Paul Ysart, Parabelle Glass, Charles Kaziun, Jim D’onofrio, Ken Rosenfeld, Melissa Ayotte, Steven Lundberg, Lundberg
Studios, Whitefriars, and Orient & Flume.
About L. H. Selman Ltd.
L. H. Selman Ltd., The Glass Gallery, based in Santa Cruz, California, offers the most extensive stock of antique and
contemporary paperweights in the world, as well as representing new and established glass artists who are working in other
contemporary glass art formats. The founder and owner, Lawrence Selman, with over thirty-five years experience, is considered
a leading expert in the field of fine glass paperweights. The company holds two major paperweight auctions yearly, which have
consistently drawn bidders from all over the world.
Selman says, “Our goal is to promote the most challenging of all glass art forms, by exhibiting the finest examples made in
centuries past, and by nurturing new talent emerging from contemporary independent studios. Our sterling reputation has
been forged from years of long-term associations with customers who have built discriminating and sophisticated collections.
But we also pride ourselves in assisting new or casual collectors, at any level of knowledge or interest.”
L. H. Selman Ltd. maintains an expansive gallery in Santa Cruz, California, with the largest inventory of antique and
contemporary paperweights anywhere. At their online gallery, http://www.TheGlassGallery.com, collectors may browse their
inventory, read glass artists’ profiles, order works of art, or bid on fine art glass through their online auctions. Bi-annual
traditional auctions, with full-color printed catalogues as well as on-line bidding opportunity, offer collectors the chance to
acquire some of the very best in antique, contemporary, and secondary-market pieces. Color brochures present the new work
of accomplished masters as well as emerging artists. Their publishing company, Paperweight Press, offers a full spectrum of
literature for the new or seasoned collector. “Our professional staff has spent years acquiring expertise in the art form,” says
Selman. “They are dedicated to a level of quality service and attention to detail that is rarely experienced these days. Our motto
is only the best from L. H. Selman Ltd.”
“Since that humble beginning with a kitchen table operation, Selman has expanded considerably and now maintains a Santa
Cruz gallery while continuing a sizeable mail order business. Selman also conducts on-line auctions and biannual traditional
‘off-line’ auctions, advises museums and individuals on their collections, travels extensively to collect both antique and
contemporary paperweights, promotes paperweight artists, encourages and helps new artists get started, and assembles traveling
paperweight exhibits.” — Kathy Moyer from Annual Bulletin of the Paperweight Collectors Association, Inc. 2001 Millennium
Edition
A Brief History of the Paperweight
What some consider to be a simple desk accessory has been locked in royal treasure vaults and collected by some of the world’s
most famous personalities. Glass paperweights have been valued and collected since they were first created in the 1840s. From
1845 to 1860 the great glasshouses of France — Baccarat, Clichy, and Saint Louis — created exquisite pieces containing glass
flowers, birds, salamanders, butterflies, and geometric designs comprised of millefiori canes. The term millefiori, which means
“a thousand flowers” in Italian, refers to cross-sectional slices of a glass rod which has been formed in a mold, much like the
making of hard candy. The French factories established a tradition of excellence, and today the most advanced glass masters
display their complex work in the form of paperweights.
Glass paperweights can be found in museums around the world, including the Smithsonian Institution, the Corning Museum
of Glass, and the Art Institute of Chicago. These pieces of complex glass have sold for as much as hundreds of thousands of
dollars. Always a luxury item, and never really intended to hold down paper, glass paperweights have been collected since
Victorian times, when they enjoyed a wide popularity by the aristocracy in Europe. However, in time, they fell out of vogue,
and by the 1950s, paperweight production had declined until it was virtually nonexistent. The advanced skills used to make the
pieces had been forgotten, rendering the paperweight, literally, a “lost art.” At the prodding of Paul Jokelson, a French collector
and art dealer, the French factories of Baccarat and Saint Louis attempted to rediscover the old weight-making skills, lost for
almost a hundred years.
Though glass workers are still unable to create some of the illusions found in antique paperweights, their experimentation
sparked a modern renaissance in glass art. Today, a new generation of artists continues to carry on the classic tradition while
utilizing modern technology to give their work a contemporary vitality. In many areas, these new artists have surpassed their
forbears. Paperweights have appreciated in value exponentially over the past fifty years, and they continue to rise in value. Paul
Jokelson’s Bird in the Nest, a paperweight he bought for $12 in 1925, sold for a world-record price of $182,600 at an L. H.
Selman Ltd. auction in 1990. The Silkworms, another of Jokelson’s antique paperweights from the French Pantin factory, had
sold for $143,000 a few years earlier.