Paperweight with Sulphide of Queen Victoria

Object Name: 
Paperweight with Sulphide of Queen Victoria

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Object Name: 
Paperweight with Sulphide of Queen Victoria
Accession Number: 
72.3.164
Dimensions: 
Overall H: 5.2 cm, Diam: 7.2 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
about 1846-1855
Credit Line: 
Gift of Lucy Smith Battson
Web Description: 
Glassmakers made sulphides by encasing pure white ceramic plaques - usually molded portraits of famous people - in glass. In the 19th century, the most popular subjects were probably Napoleon I and Queen Victoria. Sulphides were tricky to produce. First, the wafer-thin decoration had to be carefully molded, removed from the mold, and dried. Any excess clay had to be trimmed away without damaging the fragile sulphide. It was then fired and, while hot, inserted into a small bubble of molten glass. Finally, the bubble was collapsed around the sulphide by sucking out the air. Some manufacturers poured molten glass directly onto the heated sulphide. It is evident that, however careful they were, glassmakers could not avoid spoiling some of the sulphides. Cracking must have been the most prevalent problem.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Battson, Lucy Smith (Mrs. Leigh M.), Source
Category: 
Primary Description: 
Colorless and opaque red non-lead (?) glasses; enclosing polychrome millefiori canes and sulphide; fused murrine; encased sulphide; furnace-worked; cut. Domed, circular shape; cut circular facet on top; five cut circular facets, alternating with cut, rounded grooves on sides; enclosing sulphide portrait of Queen Victoria, facing left, encircled by a ring of millefiori canes; on a raspberry red ground; polished, concave base.
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2006-11-16 through 2007-03-18
West Bridge Exhibit
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2003-03-20 through 2003-09-01
West Bridge Show
 
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass
Venue(s)
Yokohama Museum of Art 1992-10-12 through 1992-12-13
Flowers Which Clothe the Meadows
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 1978-04-26 through 1978-10-21
 
The illustrated encyclopedia of glass (2011) illustrated, p. 249; BIB# 128671
The Encyclopedia of Glass (2001) illustrated, p. 204; BIB# 69319
Paperweights (1996-05) illustrated, p. 11; BIB# AI4309
The Corning Museum of Glass and the Finger Lakes Region (1993) illustrated, cover, p. 45, top right; BIB# 35681
Treasures from The Corning Museum of Glass (1992) illustrated, pp. 156-157, P29; BIB# 35679
Paperweights from The Corning Museum of Glass (1987) illustrated, #21; BIB# 34353
Paperweights: Flowers Which Clothe the Meadows (1978) illustrated, pp. 115, 144, #159; BIB# 20097