Hand-Blown Studio Glass Paperweight | Pink, Cobalt Blue & Gold Aventurine | Internal Bubble & Scroll Decoration | Unattributed | 20th Century

The colours suspended here did not arrange themselves — each layer was a decision made in seconds, in heat, by hands that knew there would be no second attempt.

This hand-blown glass paperweight is of near-spherical domed form with a flat ground base. The internal decoration is layered and complex: a diffuse pink glass mass occupies the lower and mid body, suffused with fine scattered inclusions that catch light across its surface. Rising through the pink ground is a concentrated cobalt blue form, irregular in outline, its surface scattered with fine particulate inclusions. Above the blue, a domed inclusion of gold aventurine glass — dense with metallic fleck — spreads outward in trailing filaments across the upper interior. Clear loop and scroll formations are suspended at the mid-level, and a ring of elongated clear bubble forms punctuates the outer perimeter of the piece when viewed from above. The base is ground flat and frosted, with a central pink inclusion visible from below. The piece is unsigned and carries no maker's mark or label.

There are no chips or cracks. The piece is in sound condition throughout.

• Form: Paperweight
• Material: Hand-blown glass
• Colours: Clear, pink, cobalt blue, gold aventurine
• Decoration: Internal layered colour masses, gold aventurine inclusion, loop and scroll formations, bubble perimeter
• Maker: Unattributed
• Period: 20th century
• Diameter: 8 cm
• Weight: 697 g

In glass, as in most things worth making, the gold is on the inside.