Millefiori paperweight from Baccarat
A sphere of clear glass filled with a thousand tiny glass flowers.
Paperweights were a fashion in France in the 1840s and 1850s, and Baccarat, Saint-Louis and Clichy competed for the finest. The technique came from Venice, where millefiori means a thousand flowers. Examples are in the Musée Baccarat and the Corning Museum of Glass.
Materials: Lead crystal and coloured glass canes
Manufacture: Coloured glass canes were cut into slices, arranged in patterns and encased in a sphere of clear glass.
The cane slices, each a tiny pattern of flowers or stars.
Sometimes a date and a B in one of the slices.