Paperweight of Love
“My object is a glass paperweight; a clear glass sphere about 2 inches high and round, encasing a blown-glass flower of long slender petals, alternating shades of light and dark blue, with a clear bubble at the centre (as if the flower bud) and a halo of much smaller glass bubbles (as if the floating pollen drifting up and away).
This is the very first gift and love token that I bought Bev, my then girlfriend, now wife of 30 years.
This paperweight has travelled with us to all the flats, houses – and a canal boat – that we have shared, rented, owned and lived in, in the west and east of England, accompanying us throughout the lives of our two sons, now in their early twenties.
It has been displayed in all those homes on shelves, mantels and sideboards, and now resides on a shelf in a heart-shaped unit on our lounge wall, among many other meaningful objects and photos we have gathered along those years.
My bid matches for each of us the number of years this has been in our lives, this object spied in a small art and gift shop in Bishopston, Bristol, in the summer of 1991 by a young man very much in love with a young woman.”
Matt Ilett
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