Photograph by Ed Pollard, Hasselblad H4D50 - 2015.

Shot Cup with Crown Paperweight Base

Manufacturer Compagnie des Cristalleries des Saint-Louis

CultureFrench

Dateca. 1846

MediumBlown glass with twisted glass canes and millefiori cane

DimensionsOverall: 3 11/16 in. (9.4 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase

Object number95.7.1

On View

Chrysler Museum of Art, Gallery 116-4, Case 30

DescriptionThis is a shot cup with crown paperweight base. The shot cup is made of blown colorless glass, is bell shaped, and has a glue and white torsade rim. The cup is mounted on a crown weight base consisting of red and green corkscrew cables edged in white alternating with twisted white filigree threads that radiate from an ocher star can ringed of blue and white star canes at the top of the dome.

Label TextShot Cup With Crown "Paperweight" Base Compagnie des Cristalleries des Saint-Louis, France, ca. 1846-1855 Blown glass with twisted glass canes and millefiori cane Museum Purchase 95.7.1 The cup of this desk accessory was intended to hold lead shot for sharpening steel pen nibs. The base is made like a crown paperweight. Unlike most paperweights which are fashioned from solid glass, crown paperweights are blown. Filigree canes and alternating ribbon twists were vertically arranged with a single millefiori cane at the top to form the crown, an adaption of traditional Venetian filigree work. Saint-Louis was the only French maker of crown paperweights, but emigree workmen brought the technique to at least two American factories: the New England Glass Co. and the Boston & Sandwich Glass Co. Edited By: GLYExhibition History"Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - March 2, 1997 Published ReferencesPaul Hollister, GLASS PAPERWEIGHTS OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY (New York: Clarkson N. Potter Inc., 1974), p. 40, plate 22.