A rare St.Louis mushroom close-pack paperweight dated 1845

the tuft composed of colourful canes including the signature cane SL1845, within a torsade of spiralling pink and latticinio threads

Collection of G.Garcia
Collection of Charlotte Green, France

Illustrated by C.Green, Presse Papiers de Cristal, pl.8a, described as 'very rare'.

This weight would appear to be the earliest signed and dated St.Louis paperweight. A hand-cooler bearing the date 1845, from the collection of the New York Historical Society, was sold Sotheby's New York, 18th January 1995, lot 168. P.Jokelson, Antique French Paperweights, p.135 refers to only one St.Louis paperweight bearing the 1845 date and the present lot is believed to be that example. In the footnote to the hand cooler Paul Hollister commented that it was "the earliest date appearing on a Saint-Louis or indeed any French paperweight."