Paperweight c. 19th century

This glass paperweight was made in France by the Clichy Glasshouse sometime between 1837 and 1885. Its concentric arrangement of millefiori, or "thousand flowers," speaks to the 19th-century fascination with controlled, geometric beauty. Paperweights like these became fashionable desk accessories during a time of increased literacy and office work. The Clichy Glasshouse, renowned for its craftsmanship, was one of several companies catering to the bourgeois desire for luxury goods. The intricate floral patterns, frozen in glass, reflect a culture that valued order and the preservation of natural beauty in an increasingly industrialized world. To truly understand objects like this, one must turn to sources beyond the purely aesthetic: trade records, social histories of consumerism, and studies of the glassmaking industry. Only then can we fully appreciate this paperweight as a symbol of its time.