Paperweight collecting

. Fossils of seed ferns such as Glossopteris are widely distributed throughout several continents of the southern hemisphere, a fact that gave support to Alfred Wegener's early ideas regarding Continental drift theory. He has more recently moved away from the classical domed paperweight to rectangular forms which are among the finest glass objects produced in the twentieth century. Fossil forests of petrified wood have been found in all continents. The work of Paul Stankard was particularly noted for its incredibly realistic portrayal of flowers, including their roots. Such specimens may be cut and polished using lapidary equipment. Today their work rivals anything produced by the great factories of the middle 1800's. Petrified wood is often heavily silicified (the organic material replaced by silicon dioxide), and the impregnated tissue is often preserved in fine detail.

Over the years their work improved in precision and complexity and sometimes strived for increased reality in depicting natural objects. Petrified wood is common in some parts of the world, and is most frequently found in arid or desert areas were it is more readily exposed by erosion. Then in the late 1960's and 1970's other artists such as Paul Stankard, Delmo and daughter Debbie Tarsitano, Victor Trabucco and sons, Gordon Smith, Rick Ayotte and his daughter Melissa, and the father and son team of Bob and Ray Banford, began breaking new ground. Sequoia and its allies, magnolia, oak, and palms are often found. In Scotland, the pioneering work of Paul Ysart in the 1950's was very important in showing the way to a new generation of artists such as William Manson and John Deacons. The fossilized remains of conifer and angiosperm roots, stems and branches may be locally abundant in lake and inshore sedimentary rocks from the Mesozoic and Caenozoic eras. Charles Kazuin started in 1940 to produce buttons, paperweights, inkwells and other bottles using lamp-work of elegant simplicity. In the Fossil Forest at Victoria Park in Glasgow, Scotland, the stumps of Lepidodendron trees are found in their original growth positions.

In the U.S. The spoil heaps of coal mines are the best places to collect; coal itself is the remains of fossilised plants, though structural detail of the plant fossils is rarely visible in coal. There are today only about a couple of dozen studio artists who are producing (or have produced) fine paperweights. The Coal Measures are a major source of Palaeozoic plant fossils, with many groups of plants in existence at this time. Notable examples include the Lundberg studio, Orient and Flume, Correia, Lotton, and Parabelle. This fern-like tree combined a woody trunk with the fronds of a fern, but produced no seeds. These may have several to some dozens of workers with various levels of skill cooperating to produce their own distinctive "line" of paperweights. The Devonian period also saw the evolution of what many believe to be the first modern tree, Archaeopteris.

A number of small studios have appeared in the past decades, particularly in the US. Early fossils of these ancient plants show the individual cells within the plant tissue. and Great Britain and elsewhere, but they were generally of a lesser quality. The remains of fossil plants are not as common as fossil animals, although plant fossils are locally abundant in many regions worldwide. Weights were also produced in the U.S. Pollen, spores and algae (dinoflagellates and acritarchs) are used for dating sedimentary rock sequences. The first two are also producing them in limited quantities (100 to 300) again today. Fossil land plants are recorded in terrestrial, lacustrine, fluvial and nearshore marine sediments.

Louis, and Clichy. Plant fossils include roots, wood, leaves, seeds, fruit, pollen, spores, phytoliths, and amber (the fossilized resin produced by some plants). The antiques were produced mostly in three factories in France: Baccarat, St. Some climbing species, such as kudzu, which do not need to produce thick supportive tissue, may grow up to 12.5 mm/h. There are two eras in which paperweights were produced: the "classical" period, 1845 to 1860, and the modern period, from about 1950 to the present day. Some mosses grow less than 0.001 mm/h, while most trees grow 0.025-0.250 mm/h. In a modern piece, an identifying mark and date are imperative. The growth rate of plants is extremely variable.

Everything in it was intentionally put there by the artist. In temperate and boreal climates, they generally lose their leaves during the winter; many tropical plants lose their leaves during the dry season. Generally, there are no "happy accidents" in a good paperweight. Among the vascular plants, perennials include both evergreens that keep their leaves the entire year, and deciduous plants which lose their leaves for some part. Unintenional asymmetries and unevenly spaced or broken elements must be absent. Other plants may be organized according to their seasonal growth pattern:. Glass with a yellow or greenish cast is not found in good collections. Simple plants like algae may have short life spans as individuals, but their populations are commonly seasonal.

Visible flaws, such as bubbles, striations and scratches usually affects the value quite a lot. Plants rely on soil primarily for water (in quantitative terms), but also obtain nitrogen, phosphorus and other crucial nutrients. As in any fine work of art, the factors influencing the value of a paperweight are workmanship, design, rarity and condition. These sugars are then used as building blocks and form the main structural component of the plant. The ground on which the inner parts rest may be clear, colored or have a granular ground made of unfused sand, or resemble lace (latticinio). Through a process known as photosynthesis, plants use the energy in sunlight to convert carbon dioxide from the air into simple sugars. It may be coated with one or more thin layers of glass and then have windows cut through it to reveal the interior motif. It is a common misconception that most of the solid material in a plant is taken from the soil, when in fact almost all of it is actually taken from the air.

The dome or the base may be faceted or etched. A number of plants are used decoratively, including a variety of flowers. Various other embelishments may be done to enhance the beauty of the paperweight. Some vascular plants, referred to as trees and shrubs, produce woody stems and are an important source of building material. There are several different types of paperweights, and collectors often specialize in just one of them. Other plants that are eaten include fruits, vegetables, herbs, and spices. There are something like 20,000 paperweight collectors worldwide. Much of human nutrition depends on cereals.

There are a number of paperweight collectors associations, which hold national and regional conventions and other activities such as tours, lectures, and auctions. Animals and most other organisms are aerobic, relying on oxygen; those that do not are confined to relatively few, anaerobic environments. Collecting modern weights for investment purposes, though possible, is for optimists. These processes also radically changed the composition of the Earth's atmosphere, which as a result contains a large proportion of oxygen. Antique weights, of which perhaps 10,000 or so survive (mostly in museums), generally appreciate steadily in value. The photosynthesis and carbon fixation conducted by land plants and algae are the ultimate source of energy and organic material in nearly all habitats. An advantage of paperweight collecting, as opposed to many other collectables such as oil paintings and toys, is that they require no special conditions of temperature and humidity for their preservation. Therefore, fungus has a kingdom of its own.

The dividing line between these classes, of course, is up to the individual collector. They are not related to any of the photosynthetic groups, but are close relatives of animals. Both may produce inexpensive "gift" weights as well as the more expensive "collector" weights. Fruiting bodies, of which mushrooms are the most familiar, are actually only the reproductive structures of fungi. Paperweights are made in factories where many artists and technicians collaborate, as well as in studios occupied by sole artisans. Most fungi are formed by microscopic tubes called hyphae, which may or may not be divided into cells but contain eukaryotic nuclei. They rarely hold down any paper--they are rather magnificent examples of fine workmanship of the glass artisan at his best, and are appreciated for their esthetic as opposed to their utilitarian aspect. Unlike embryophytes and algae, fungi are not photosynthetic, but are saprophytes: they obtain their food by breaking down and absorbing surrounding materials.

"Paperweight" is something of a misnomer. They are not in general close relatives of the green plants, acquiring chloroplasts separately from ingested or symbiotic green and red algae. . In contrast, most other algae have chloroplasts with three or four membranes. Thus paperweight collecting is a hobby accessible to those with limited means, as well as those having a passion for rarity in addition to beauty. The same is true of the red algae, and the two groups are generally believed to have a common origin. They range in value anywhere from a few dollars to a record of $258,500 once paid for an antique French weight. The chloroplasts of green plants are surrounded by two membranes, suggesting they originated directly from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria.

something like a lens to magnify and make the parts within move in an interesting and attractive way as it is handled. They undergo closed mitosis without centrioles, and typically have mitochondria with flat cristae. Paperweights made for the collector are of solid glass, generally having a flat base and a domed top, which acts. With a few exceptions among the green algae, all such forms have cell walls containing cellulose and chloroplasts containing chlorophylls a and b, and store food in the form of starch. Jargstorf, Sibylle (1997) Paperweights ISBN 0887403751. The kingdom Plantae is now usually taken to mean this monophyletic group, as shown above. (1992) All About Paperweights ISBN 0933756178. The embryophytes developed from green algae; the two are collectively referred to as the green plants or Viridiplantae.

Selman, Lawrence H. Now they are considered neither, but protists. Reilly, Pat, (1994) Paperweights: The Collector's Guide to Identifying, Selecting, and Enjoying New and Vintage Paperweights ISBN 156138433X. Many can move about, and some have even lost their ability to photosynthesize; when first discovered, these were considered as both plants and animals. The Paperweight Mall. These and other algal groups also include various single-celled creatures and forms that are simple collections of cells, without differentiated tissues. International Paperweight Society. The most conspicuous are the seaweeds, multicellular algae that often closely resemble terrestrial plants, but as stated above are not plants, found among the green, red, and brown algae.

The Paperweight Collectors Association, Inc. However, they are not classified within the kingdom plantae but in the kingdom protista instead. Bill Price-collector/author (victorian advertising and portrait paperweights). The algae comprise several different groups of organisms that produce energy through photosynthesis. Victor Trabucco. These differ in that the seed embryo is enclosed, so the pollen has to grow a tube to penetrate the protective seed coat; they are the predominant group of flora in most biomes today. Bob and Ray Banford. The angiosperms, comprising the flowering plants, were the last major group of plants to appear, emerging from within the gymnosperms during the Jurassic and diversifying rapidly during the Cretaceous.

Rick Ayotte. Four surviving groups remain widespread now, particularly the conifers, which are dominant trees in several biomes. Debbie Tarsitano. Early seed plants are referred to as gymnosperms (naked seeds), as the seed embryo is not enclosed in a protective structure at pollination, with the pollen landing directly on the embryo. Paul Stankard. Whereas other vascular plants, such as ferns, reproduce by means of spores and so need moisture to develop, some seed plants can survive and reproduce in extremely arid conditions. Abrams. In these the gametophyte stage is completely reduced, and the sporophyte begins life inside an enclosure called a seed, which develops while on the parent plant, and with fertilisation by means of pollen grains.

N. The first primitive seed plants, Pteridosperms (seed ferns) and Cordaites, both groups now extinct, appeared in the late Devonian and diversified through the Carboniferous, with further evolution through the Permian and Triassic periods. Graeser, and J. In most the sporophyte acts as a separate individual, while the gametophyte remains small. Later makers included Albert A. These include a cuticle resistant to desiccation, and vascular tissues which transport water throughout the organism. For examples, refer to PCA's Annual Bulletins published for 2000, 2001 and 2002. They have a number of adaptations that allowed them to overcome the limitations of the bryophytes.

This same process was also used to produce paperweights with the owner's name encased or an advertisment of a business or product. Vascular plants first appeared during the Silurian period, and by the Devonian had diversified and spread into many different land environments. The portrait paperweights contained pictures of ordinary people reproduced on a milkglass disk and encased within clear glass. The sporophyte is short-lived and remains dependent on its parent gametophyte. Maxwell. This involves an alternation between two generations: a haploid stage, called the gametophyte, and a diploid stage, called the sporophyte. Victorian portrait and advertising paperweights were dome glass paperweights first made in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania using a process patented in 1882 by William H. Most species of bryophyte remain small throughout their life-cycle.

They may also be sprayed while hot with various metallic salts to achieve an irridescent look. They can only survive where moisture is available for significant periods, although some species are desiccation tolerant. California style paperweights are made by "painting" the surface of the dome with colored molten glass, and manipulated with picks or other tools. Bryophytes first appeared during the early Palaeozoic. swirl paperweights have opaque rods of two or three colors radiating like a pinwheel fom a central millefiori floret. Plants are distinguished from green algae, from which they evolved, by having specialized reproductive organs protected by non-reproductive tissues. They often are produced to commemorate some person or event. About three hundred plant species do not photosynthesize but are parasites on other species of photosynthetic plants.

sulfide paperweights have an encased three dimensional medalion or portrait plaque made from a ceramic. All of these plants have eukaryotic cells with cell walls composed of cellulose, and most obtain their energy through photosynthesis, using light and carbon dioxide to synthesize food. This is a form particularly favored by studio artists. They also include a few of their close relatives, often called bryophytes, of which mosses and liverworts are the most common. lampwork paperweights have objects such as flowers, fruit, butterflies or animals constructed by shaping and working bits of colored glass with a gas burner or torch and assembling them into attractive compositions, which are then incorporated into the dome. They include the vascular plants, plants with full systems of leaves, stems, and roots. The exist in many variations such as scattered, patterned, close concentric or carpet ground. Most familiar are the multicellular land plants, called embryophytes.

These are usually made in a factory setting. . millefiori paperweights contain thin cross-sections of cylindrical composite canes made from colored rods and resemble little flowers. Indeed, any attempt to match "plant" with a single taxon is doomed to fail, because plant is a vaguely defined concept unrelated to the presumed phylogenic concepts on which modern taxonomy is based. However, these are still often considered plants in many contexts. Since then, it has become clear that the Plantae as originally defined included several unrelated groups, and the fungi and several groups of algae were removed to new kingdoms.

In Linnaeus' system, these became the Kingdoms Vegetabilia (later Plantae) and Animalia. Aristotle divided all living things between plants, which generally do not move or have sensory organs, and animals. Plants are a major group of living things (about 300,000 species), including familiar organisms such as trees, flowers, herbs, and ferns. 0-521-64685-5.

Paperback, 247 pages ISBN. Cambridge University Press. Feeding the Ten Billion - Plants and Population Growth. (1998).

Evans, L.T. ISBN 0-13-651589-4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. The Biology and Evolution of Fossil Plants.

(1993). & Taylor, Edith L. Taylor, Thomas N. ISBN 0-7167-1007-2.

Freeman and Company. H. New York: W. Biology of Plants (7th ed.).

(2005). Raven, Peter H., Evert, Ray F., & Eichhorn, Susan E. ISBN 1-56098-730-8. C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Washington, D. The Origin and Early Diversification of Land Plants: A Cladistic Study. (1997). Kenrick, Paul & Crane, Peter R.

Perennial: live for many growing seasons; continue to reproduce once mature. Biennial: live for two growing seasons; usually reproduce in second year. Annual: live and reproduce within one growing season. Magnoliophyta - flowering plants.

Gnetophyta - gnetae. Ginkgophyta - ginkgo. Cycadophyta - cycads. Pinophyta - conifers.

†Pteridospermatophyta - seed ferns. Seed plants (spermatophytes)