Paperweights are beautiful handmade objects that are often used to decorate a home or office, or for their original purpose of weighting letters or papers to make sure they don’t go away, but there are many other interesting facts about paperweights from glass that you may not know, so here are some cool facts.
Paperweights can sometimes pose a fire hazard, it’s hard to believe you know, but a combination of different circumstances can lead to disaster. In June 2010, a £ 750,000 family home was destroyed due to a simple paperweight, no one was injured. Firefighters fought for five hours to calm the fire, and on inspection they said the fire had started because of a simple paperweight. The paperweight had been displayed on a window sill and during a heat wave it magnified the sun’s rays on a pile of books causing the fire, a very unfortunate series of events.
In addition to this, you may be interested to know that in September 2008 a paperweight caused the evacuation of the huge JFK airport. Airport officials thought they saw a suspicious device that led to the evacuation of the entire terminal and flights were not allowed to enter or leave the terminal. Once the official reviewed the ‘suspicious’ package, they discovered that it was actually paperweights.
Paperweights were also used in the 1800s by royalty as decorative objects and in fact a paperweight was bought about the untimely death of Paul 1st, Tsar of Russia, who reigned from 1754 to 1801. Today he was assassinated when it was produced. a chase in his bedroom after a conspiracy was organized against him. The men chased him around the room until he tripped and fell, causing a bronze and gold paperweight to fall on him.
As we all know, paperweights come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and even world-famous Tiffany’s jewelers create specialized paperweights, like the limited edition Star Wars Death Star engraved paperweight, released to coincide with the highest grossing movie. In this sense, paperweights are often collectibles and come in a variety of themes, from movies to world cup-style paperweights; surely there is something for everyone.
So, as you can see from this interesting news, paperweights are not only beautiful and decorative objects, but they also have a lot of history and can be a great starting point for a conversation. Besides this, they make the perfect gift, as a corporate paperweight for a colleague.