MAXWELL VICTORIAN DOMED PORTRAIT PAPERWEIGHT.

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Source eBay

After doing some serious research, we offer what we believe to be a very early (1880) unsigned William H. Maxwell Victorian portrait paperweight. At 1 3/4" tall and having a 3" diameter concave (large) base, this heavy piece of glass has an original b&w tone portrait of a healthy, eyes wide open, naked, pudgy baby boy which has been mounted atop a milk glass plate and encased in clear glass. The photo is without damage or distortion and is evenly centered in the dome. You can still see the blanket the child lays on has a pattern...those are not black spots in the photo...but I am sorry about the overhead light glare. The milk glass disk is clearly visible around the interior. Several air bubbles are encased along this line. There is no damage. No cracks, chips, scratches, cloudiness or distortions to the glass dome. Although the base shows very minor wear, it is far less than one would expect from a 125 year old piece of glass designed to be slid across hard surfaces. We believe the base shows so little wear because it sat on a dresser doily..we found it wrapped in one. There is an even, soft amethyst hue to the glass from the accumulation of natural sunlight over the decades. Again a testimony to the age of this one of a kind paperweight. This piece has never been encased in cement. Now, if the research leads us to believe it was read more

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