Antique New England Glass Co. faceted flat bouquet magnum paperweight, circa 1860. D 3 1/2 in. Estimate: $8,000-12,000.
On Friday, May 21st, a major paperweight collection in America will be going up for auction in Philadelphia. The 260 lots coming up at Freeman’s Auctions include many antique works by French companies Baccarat and Clichy, as well as contemporary botanical paperweights by American master Paul Stankard.
Known as the Labow/Seacat collection, the 600 paperweights and ephemera was assembled by longtime companions Jack Labow and Mel Seacat (who died in 1997) over the decades after Seacat was given a paperweight as a gift from Labow’s sister. Though the collection is extensive and contains many fine examples of paperweights from different eras, the estimates are surprisingly affordable. For example, a group of five Baccarat couronne paperweights, each with four concentric rings of canes and a central cane, encased in clear glass has an estimate of only $400 to $600.
For more information, call 215-563-9275 or you can download a PDF of the catalog here.