Ornate Star Magnifying Paperweight
We can’t be certain who actually made the Maddox paperweights. Gustavus and Joseph Maddox were involved with William J. Cromwell in the Star Novelty Company, but filed a bill for a receiver in February 1899, before the patent was filed. They later sued Cromwell for infringement of this patent in January 1900. In 1903, Gustavus was trading as the Baltimore Novelty Works and was involved in a suit with Cromwell trading as the Sterling Glass Works.
A very similar paperweight was made by Harold Bennett’s Guernsey Glass Company in the 1970s. The example seen here has a transfer reproduction of the painting of the “Surrender of Cornwallis” by John Trumbull on the dome. Painted in gold on the points of the star is “U S A / 1776 1976.” It is embossed on the back of one of the points with “B” (for Bennett).
Curiously, we have another paperweight in the collection embossed on the back: “PAT’D. OCT 3, 1899,” the date of the Maddox patent, but it is in the shape of a horseshoe rather than a star. Because this patent was for an invention rather than a design, presumably any shape could be covered by the patent, which emphasized the use of the easel to hold the “picture-exhibitor.”
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