There are also pages to help you identify paperweights - but this is a complex and difficult topic, so there are no guarantees of success! These include a page of modern Chinese paperweights, which turn up in all sorts of places at all sorts of prices; a page of examples of the more common weights that turn up at car boot sales or charity shops; and the Murano project (updated 24 June 2010).

Advice and information - help with identification and valuation

We retired from our professional careers a few years ago to live in Somerset, and now spend a lot of time on what was our hobby. As a result we are specialists in paperweights, and we write articles and give talks about them in the UK and abroad. Alan is also the Newsletter Editor for the Paperweight Collectors Circle.

We do know enough to spot the occasional errors in the catalogues of major auction houses, for example - but we don't know everything: anyone who claims to is deluding themselves! However, we can probably help you with the identification and valuation of your paperweights (whether for sale, insurance or probate).

Contacting us

We have removed the direct email contact link to try and reduce the amount of spam that we receive. We can be contacted by email as follows: use the name alan.thornton and the provider physics.org - you will need to put an @ between the two parts.

You can telephone us on: 01935 822316 (from outside the UK use 0044 1935 822316).

Articles

Here are two items concerning English paperweights: (article) (guide)

Recommended books

We recommend Miller's Guide as a good value starter guide ( usually under £5 ) to identifying and learning about paperweights. If you collect Caithness paperweights, then the Charlton Catalogue is very helpful, and for Scottish paperweights more generally, try Scottish Paperweights by Bob Hall. For an overview of paperweights more generally, have a look at World Paperweightsby Fleming & Pomerencke.

There are many more books to do with paperweights and collecting more widely on the new Books pages.

We have added to this site some of the articles that we have written for various publications.  We hope they are of interest, and maybe inspire you to join one of the collectors' organisations such as the Paperweight Collectors Circle.

UK Makers

We have some very skilled and innovative makers in the UK, including well known names such as John Deacons, Willie Manson, Peter MacDougall, Peter Holmes, Richard Golding, Johathan Harris and Mike Hunter. There are many others not as well known. It is worth checking up on smaller glass studios in your own locality - you never know what you will find. In our area we have Siddy Langley and Will Shakspeare - both superb glass artists, who make some paperweights.

Please browse the site, and let me know what you think would improve it - and please send me useful links if you have any. We have included links to various useful Books, and also to Onspeed, which we have found very effective at speeding up image downloads - even with broadband.

We hope you enjoy the site.........and enjoy paperweights......they are an art form, an object of fascination, an investment, and a topic of conversation..... and no doubt more besides.  For example, seek out the Infinity Project on Josh Simpson's site for a different way to display (?) paperweights.