The Collections, episode 2. In which the fermacarte come out to play, or "Millefiori di ottobre."

Another month in quarantine, another collection. With the shoes put to rest (only one pair of sandals found themselves in a KonMari donation pile) last month, I turned my attention to a favorite collection that I see daily, but often take for granted. The paperweights are out and about in our home, but I don't often take the time to admire them so they were a perfect candidate for my "millefiori di ottobre" FaceBook posts this October.

I didn't start out with the intention of collecting paperweights, certainly not 33 of them in the past 32 years, but there they all are. I shared 31 of them with you individually this past October during my daily FaceBook posts and I'd like to present them all to you now as Mari and I see them every day.

This is the overhead view, through the glass top of the coffee table
(which is very awkward to remove, especially just for a photo shoot, so on it stayed).

I honestly don't remember where they all lived before Mari and I found "the perfect coffee table" for our living room about 15 years ago, but they were not clustered together in any one place. One of the more exciting things about collecting (anything) is finding items in a variety of different locations (even different states, countries, and continents) and bringing them all together or "recollecting" them as I have been fond of saying in this here blog. While several of these paperweights were purchased at the same location (the Michiana Antique Mall and the West Palm Beach Antiques Festival at the South Florida Fairgrounds come to mind), even those were purchased from different vendors and booths and often years apart.

This is the view from the couch.
I like to think of them all snuggly cozy, each speaking their truest bold and bright selves.

Most of my paperweights have found me during travels when Mari and I regularly visit fleamarkets, antique malls, and garage sales. As you know by now, many of our travels are influenced by the location and timing of these events. 

I didn't realize until I started arranging photos on my computer for the FaceBook
posts that these two looked nearly identical, despite the one on the right being
nearly twice the diameter of Lefty, so Righty is making his public debut today!

More blue.  As you know from my shoe (and sock) collection, blue is a favorite hue.

Fallo blu!  (Go blue!)

Aside from my obvious fascination with blue, Righty includes an example of a portrait cane.
I have never come across a human portrait or silhouette, but the shamrock is a beloved symbol.
Fallo irlandese!  (Go Irish!)

It was fun to discover these two patriotic tributes among my collection.

Aside from all the multi-colored millefiori fermacarte I have collected over the past
three (plus) decades, sometimes the modest varietals can be simply spectacular.

I have to take a moment here to apologize to Italians (and Italian-Americans) everywhere for my attempts at providing language instruction during the past month. Humble and instructional my attempts were, however, and I personally delighted in sharing a bit of fermacarte and millefiori history in my daily factoids. I would like to recommend the following resources upon which I relied for much of my historical information.

All about Paperweights (Paperweight Press, 1992) by Lawrence H. Selman

Paperweights of the World (Schiffer Publishing, 2007) by Monika Flemming & Peter Pommerencke

World Paperweights: Millefiori & Lampwork (Schiffer Publishing, 2001) by Robert G. Hall

Lefty is one of my oldest paperweights. To be honest, I really could not recall the first.
Call it age or (hoarding) just having too many collections in the house.

As you know, when I am on the hunt for collectibles, there is never any one item I seek.
Sometimes it is the size, color, or arrangement of colors that catches my collector's eye.

I was immediately dazzled by the bright hues of Righty, so different from the green-imbued Lefty.
As much as I love symmetry, too, I was overwhelmed by the resplendent randomness.

Both of these weigh in at 1.75 inches in diameter, but are so very different!

Lefty is the first micro millefiori paperweight I discovered in my collecting.
I was delighted, but not surprised, to learn that he was made in Murano.
The seemingly "Starry Night" inspired fermacarte on the right is a recent addition.

While Mari and I made it as far as Venice back in the summer of 2013, we did not have the opportunity to visit the glassworks on Murano. Finding the micro millefiori (above left) with its Murano stamp was a most special treat, just a few thousand miles closer to home.

As you know from traveling with me second hand as I look for secondhand collectibles to bubblewrap for their journey to their new home, I necessarily look for small-scale items that are easily packable (and oh so bubble-wrapable) and paperweights have long fit that bill as they are easy to fit in the hollow of a shoe or tucked safely between other suitcased necessities. That is why so many of my collections are made up of so many small-scale items (cuff links, typewriter ribbon tins, pens, owls, teacups, cameras, snuff bottles, you-get-the-idea). I hope to share more of those maxi mini collections with you some day soon, but for now we'll return to the fermacarte who came out to play today.

Similarly hued, these are both on the mini side at 1.6875 (Lefty) and 1.75 (Righty) inches in diameter.
Purchased thousands of miles and decades apart, they now live together in perfect harmony.

One of the most recent alongside one of the oldest in my collezione.
Lefty was discovered during our recent yet-to-be-blogged Maine
adventures and was the subject of my first ottobre FaceBook posts.

I compared Lefty to a snowflake despite his hefty 3.5 inch diameter. So very delicato!
Righty is making his debut today and has tales to tell. He was recovered from one of the many stops we made at the World's Longest Yard Sale in Tennessee and Kentucky back in 2008, my first blog series.

Not all millefiori or paperweights are multi-colored or multi-caned, some are large and delicate, others small and robust, no two alike. That is one of their best qualities and what makes them so fun to collect. When I discovered Righty (above) during our 2008 summer fleamarketing travel adventure, he was unlike any paperweight in my collection, but sitting there atop a precariously poised card table on a Kentucky family's driveway for all of one dollar, he spoke to me and I heeded the call of a kindred soul who yearned to explore the open road. Among his multi-colored, multi-caned, and seemingly more cosmopolitan brethren he now resides.

This unusual cuideam pàipear hails from Crief, Scotland and was made by Perthshire Paperweights.
My only flat-top (slightly concave) was found far from his Scottish ancestral home at a Manhattan flea.

Not quite like the others, but also living in harmony today as you can see at top.
Lefty is a mystery to me in his flirtatiously murky fluidity. I found the colors deliriously soothing.

As mentioned in one of my final posts, the paperweight on the right, above, was a special gift to myself. On September 25, 1989, Mari and I received our first professional paychecks as high school teachers. We treated ourselves to a visit to Corpus Christi's annual Bayfest, a combination music and cultural festival with a variety of activities and events celebrating the end of summer and beginning of fall. Along with the beautiful beach front, Mari and I were drawn especially to the antiques and craft festival at the convention center, naturally. The 3.25 inch diameter paperweight (among the largest of my collezione) was purchased new from the artisan, one of the only times I have had the opportunity to meet the individual who crafted one of my favorite collectibles. It is elegantly aqueous and mesmerizes as much as it gently envelopes every color of the spectrum.

This was an anniversary gift from Mari back in the late 1990s.
She was thinking of me on our special day while thousands of miles away at her June AP reading.
(You aren't seeing double, I just didn't want it to be lonely in case it was giving us the evil eye.)

I presented this true fermacarte millefiori last because it is a special souvenir.
It proudly and literally represents the history of Italian millefiori.

High on my souvenir search list during our trip to Italy in 2013 was a millefiori paperweight from the home of millefiori paperweights. It didn't take long for this unique piece to find me on our first full day in Venice. Along with several thousand other out-of-towners, Mari and I strolled the shops in St. Mark's Square, enjoying the creamiest and dreamiest hazelnut gelato. The basilica bells were tolling, birds (and tourists) were everywhere, and, of course, the souvenir shops beckoned. Mari and I restrained as best we could because three weeks of punctiliously budgeted travels (and luggage space) awaited. It was as we rounded the last corner in the Square that my collector's gaze narrowed its focus and I drew breath for the first time.

Sorry, the melodramatic flows easily when I'm in reverie mode.

Seriously, seeing an entire shop full of millefiori beauties on display must have set my bald spot aglow so that radar could detect me from space.

If you recall, dear reader, the same feeling erupted when I discovered
this Limoges M&M sorter at the Paris flea back in Paris, episode 9.

Technically, my Venetian souvenir is not a millefiori paperweight, but a collection of carefully crafted canes yet to be enveloped by molten glass. I had never seen such a thing and was thrilled to make room for this very minuscolo memento (2.25 inches diameter but only 0.875 inches tall). My deconstructed paperweight now sits within reach and easy sight by my desktop computer. Owing to his vertical challenges, my piccolo italiano doesn't play well with the others and their pinguid personalities.

As you can see in this final view, the collection has room to grow. They will soon be packed away for a seasonal slumber, however, as some beloved Christmas collections come out of hibernation for their own days in the South Texas sun (sorry, that's a lot of glare on the table top). Thanks to all of you who tuned in today and who took the time to comment on FaceBook. It was divertente to share such a beloved collection with you this ottobre!