Rick and Pam Pfliger are Canadian paperweight collectors who have compiled a valuable database of paperweight-related information. They are offering it as a gift to the paperweight community as a reference tool for the paperweight community at large and as a means to raise funds and awareness.

This database was originally developed for the Pfliger’s own reference. It indexed the American and Canadian makers of the paperweights in Rick and Pam’s paperweight collection and documents other artists of growing interest. What began as a list of North American artists has now expanded to career-related details of artists from all over the world.

This database tackles the big mystery of glass paperweight artists’ signatures. There are no standards when it comes to signing paperweights and identifying some signatures can be difficult. Many contemporary paperweights have signatures that are easy to identify. However, over the last century, talented but undocumented artists have come and gone, leaving behind their stylistically signed paperweights without attribution. Valuable information to identify them disappeared as their studios closed or as they died. And as time goes by, fewer people who knew them remain.

We now have an opportunity to document some of these artists, thanks to the shared communication and information that the internet provides. Current research is generally initiated by the presence of signatures on paperweights once the paperweights appear on the secondary retail market. But if an artist’s paperweights have not appeared on the secondary market, it is extremely difficult to identify them. We must identify any and all of these artists promptly while the information and memories are still with us. What we remember today may ensure that a genuine and talented artist is not completely forgotten by the world of paperweights!

An artist’s signature, including a date or symbol on or in a paperweight, is the starting point to correctly identifying a paperweights maker. The signature, combined with other factors such as the paperweight’s style, colors, size, finish, etc., will help contribute to its proper attribution. This database gathers information about signatures to help identify artists and initiate more exhaustive research in specialized publications, websites, and social media.

Initials and acronyms are necessarily employed to keep the volume of more than 2400 entries manageable. Once the index has revealed the secrets of the signature, an internet search can be cross-referenced to find the general value of the paperweight.

There is a wealth of scholarly publications that documents the history of antique paperweights. However, there is relatively little information available on artists of the last hundred years. Therefore, most of the information in this database refers to modern artists but also includes antiques. The criteria used to select the artists included in this database follow strict guidelines: any paperweight that contains a signature or signature mark, inside or on the surface of the paperweight, including a cane, is included. With the following exceptions: paperweights by hobbyists have been excluded; the artist must have an internet presence, which in this context is defined as a listing for sale of three or more signed paperweights where the signature is legible; or, the artist must have recognition in a book or publication from an online source. Unfortunately, but by definition, unsigned and unmarked paperweights cannot be included in this database, although there are references where possible to the companies that made them.