Modern Paperweights
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”
Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.
Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.
It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.
Late 20th Century Modern Paperweights
Crystal
20th Century English Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Brass
20th Century English Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Paperweights
Stone
21st Century and Contemporary American Modern Paperweights
Lucite
Late 20th Century Japanese Modern Paperweights
Brass
2010s Danish Modern Paperweights
Cast Stone
21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Paperweights
Marble
Late 20th Century Unknown Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
Late 20th Century Modern Paperweights
Crystal
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Glass
1970s Italian Vintage Modern Paperweights
Chrome
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Glass
2010s Danish Modern Paperweights
Cast Stone
20th Century French Modern Paperweights
Glass
2010s Danish Modern Paperweights
Cast Stone
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Glass
1990s Italian Modern Paperweights
Metal
2010s Danish Modern Paperweights
Cast Stone
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Glass
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Glass
2010s Danish Modern Paperweights
Cast Stone
Late 20th Century Italian Modern Paperweights
Murano Glass
2010s Danish Modern Paperweights
Cast Stone
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Modern Paperweights
Granite, Bronze
1970s European Vintage Modern Paperweights
Blown Glass
Mid-20th Century Belgian Modern Paperweights
Crystal
1980s American Vintage Modern Paperweights
Crystal
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Modern Paperweights
Bronze
Mid-20th Century Brazilian Modern Paperweights
Bronze
21st Century and Contemporary British Modern Paperweights
Brass
2010s Italian Modern Paperweights
Glass
1990s Unknown Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
1990s American Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
1990s American Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
21st Century and Contemporary French Modern Paperweights
Bronze
2010s Sicilian Modern Paperweights
Terracotta
1950s American Vintage Modern Paperweights
Glass, Blown Glass
20th Century Unknown Modern Paperweights
Stone, Marble
2010s Argentine Modern Paperweights
Brass, Bronze
20th Century French Modern Paperweights
Art Glass
Late 20th Century Modern Paperweights
Metal
Late 20th Century American Modern Paperweights
Art Glass