Baccarat 1976 Mount Rushmore Sulphide Paperweight - Red and White Double Overlay

Description

Baccarat 1976 Mount Rushmore Sulphide with Red and White Double Overlay
and Blue Ground with Box and Certificate
Baccarat 1976 Mount Rushmore Sulphide with Red and White Double Overlay and Blue Ground with Box and Certificate.
dated 1976.  This modern sulphide paperweight features a very large three dimensional figure of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota depicting the four presidents heads George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln.  It has a red and white double overlay and a transparent blue ground.  The paperweight is faceted with a large oval top facet and eight oval side facets.  There is a footed base.  The sulphide was designed by Jean Goy, a noted French sculptor.  It is signed on the base with the Baccarat acid etch logo, the edition number number "150/1000" (of which only 789 were made), and the date "1976".  This is the largest of the modern Baccarat sulphide paperweights.  It comes with its original tightly fitted box and original unnumbered certificate.  A magnificent paperweight.
Unlike most other Baccarat sulphide paperweights, this paperweight was made in only one format with a red and white overlay and blue ground.  There were not supposed to be any variations, but some of the individual examples had additional facets  at the bottom of the overlay.  This low number example has a clear band at the bottom of the overlay.  According to Dunlop, the edition was planned for 1,000 paperweights but only 789 were actually made.
Please Note:
The stand shown in the pictures is not included with the paperweight.  It is shown for illustration only.
Note on white glare
:  Please ignore the white areas, they are glare from the light.
Sulphides
are cast objects (animals, flowers, people) made of a ceramic material that has properties similar to the surrounding glass.  They are normally white, but are also sometimes colored or even painted.  The objects are cast in a mold that copied or made directly from a medallion, coin or sculpture.  The finest French sulphides are cast in a mold made by a skilled artist.  Sometimes a sulphide will have a silvery appearance due to a thin layer of trapped bubbles between the glass and the sulphide itself.
Very large size:
It is oval shaped, 4 1/16" wide by 3 1/2" deep by 2 1/16" high.  The blue transparent base is ground flat.  The paperweight is faceted with one large oval top facet and eight oval side facets and is footed.
Signature:
The paperweight is signed on the base with an acid etched Baccarat mark, along with the date (1976) and the edition number (150/1000).  It comes with its original box and unnumbered certificate.
Condition:
Excellent condition.  I found a few light scratches on the base.
Baccarat
was founded in 1776 in Alsace-Lorraine with the name of Verrerie de Sainte Anne.  The original location was near the town of Baccarat.  Today the firm is known as Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat.  Most collectors refer to three periods of Baccarat paperweight production.
1845-1860 - Classic period
1920-1934 - Dupont period
1953-2002 - Modern period
This classification is definitely an over simplification.  The best millefiori and lampwork paperweights were made during the classic period (1845-1860).   Baccarat continued to make paperweights after the classic period, but little is known about the extent of the product line or who made the paperweights.  What is known is that by 1910, the offering in the catalog had dwindled to pansy paperweights, simple open concentric paperweights, and rock paperweights.  Popular lore attributes 1920-1934 Baccarat paperweights to a Mr. Dupont, who supposedly was the last worker at Baccarat to know the secrets of paperweight making.  These paperweights were sold at a Baccarat retail shop in Paris. No collector or scholar ever met Mr. Dupont although at least one visited the Baccarat factory and asked to meet with him.  The weights stopped appearing in the shop in 1934.
In 1952, Paul Jokelson approached Baccarat with the idea of making sulphide paperweights again.  In 1953 Baccarat resumed paperweight production with a series of sulphide paperweights the first of which were the unsuccessful Eisenhower sulphide followed by the Queen Elizabeth coronation sulphide.  Millefiori paperweight production was resumed in 1957 and lampwork paperweights were re-introduced in the early 1970s.  Baccarat stopped making this type of fine glass paperweights in 2002.
You can read more about the Baccarat paperweights in the book
Baccarat Paperweights - two centuries of beauty
by Paul Dunlop or one of the older books on paperweights in general, such as
The Encyclopedia of Glass Paperweights
by Paul Hollister or
World Paperweights
by Robert Hall.
Allan's Paperweights
is owned by Allan Port.
If you have any questions, please click the "
paperweights
" link under seller information and then contact seller.
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