images on this website are copyrighted by Papier Presse 2014
Manson has been one of Scotland’s best weight makers for decades. This simple flower is placed on a green & white jasper ground. It is from a limited edition of 150 weights and is signed with a cane and inscribed on the base, “William Manson 1999 2/150”
2 1/2" diameter.
$250.
call (800)227-1996 10AM till 10PM EST to order.
or e-mail us at [email protected]
CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
William David Manson “Willie”, was born in Wick, Caithness, Scotland in November, 1951. He and his wife Joyce have two grown children William and Carolyn, who worked in his studio for a while in the 1990s. Manson started working with glass at Caithness in the late 1960s, having the good fortune of apprenticing with paperweight master Paul Ysart. In 1970 when Ysart left Caithness to start his own glassworks, Harland Glass, he took Willie with him. During the four years Harland was in business Willie helped Ysart in setting up the equipment, then in making paperweights. It was in these years that Manson became an accomplished weight maker, gaining skills in both the lampwork and millefiori techniques. When Harland closed, Manson returned to Caithness as a skilled glassworker. In 1979 a small company, Aden Hill Ltd. hired Willie to make paperweights with three or four assistants which were sold as William Manson paperweights. A line of lesser, production weights was also made here, marketed as Scotia weights. In 1981 this business closed and Manson again returned to Caithness, where his wife Joyce also worked. Most of the best traditional weights to come from Caithness over the years were made by Manson.
In 1997 Willie and his wife Joyce left Caithness to start their own company, William Manson Paperweights. Both of their children joined them in this endeavor. In the fall of 2003 Manson closed his studio to spend some time exploring England on his Harley Davidson.
Excerpted from The Dictionary of Glass Paperweights, Paul H. Dunlop, Papier Presse 2009.
