Swarovski Crystal (Austria) paperweights

Swarovski is an Austrian company founded in 1895 by Daniel Swarovski. The company is known for producing high-quality crystal jewelry, figurines, accessories, and lighting products.

Daniel Swarovski was born in 1862 in the Bohemian region of Austria-Hungary. He learned the art of glass cutting and polishing from his father and later attended a school for mechanical engineering in Vienna. In 1892, Swarovski patented an electric cutting machine that revolutionized the production of crystal glass. He later founded his own company in Wattens, Austria, in 1895, which specialized in the manufacturing of crystal glass.

Swarovski crystals became popular for more... their brilliance, precision, and high quality. The company expanded its product range to include jewelry, figurines, and other decorative items. In the 1920s, Swarovski began producing crystal jewelry and accessories for fashion designers such as Coco Chanel and Christian Dior. Swarovski also provided crystals for the costumes of the dancers in the 1952 film "Singin' in the Rain."

In the 1970s, Swarovski began producing crystal figurines, which quickly became a collector's item. The company also expanded into the lighting market, producing chandeliers and other decorative lighting fixtures, and into the United States jewellery market in 1977..

Swarovski is now a global brand with a presence in over 170 countries. The company is still family-owned and operates manufacturing facilities in Austria, the Czech Republic, and Thailand. In addition to its crystal products, Swarovski also produces precision optics and optoelectronics for a variety of industries. The company has a reputation for quality and innovation and has received numerous awards for its products and designs. less...

Paperweights, used to hold down papers, and most commonly made in glass, evolved in Venice in the early nineteenth century, and spread to France via Bohemia about 1845, where the finest examples were produced by three factories: Baccarat, Clichy and St Louis. Examples from these manufacturers are mostly unmarked and widely faked and imitated and thus a minefield for the uninitiated. The most popular motif is millefiori ('thousand flowers'), though fruit, single flowers, insects, and other small objects are often used as well as portraits and view. The cheaper paperweights use air bubbles as decoration. The classic paperweights are round more... and domed, but lesser weights were also made in the form of pyramids and rectangles. The early period of paperweights is reckoned to have ended in 1870 but some 20th century manufacturers such as Lalique, Kosta Boda, Whitefriars and Caithness Glass have produced some fine examples. The great majority of paper weights are unmarked, and glass rarely shows its age.

Paperweights are also made in gold, silver, silver plate, hardstone, amber, ceramic, ivory, timber and other materials. less...