Who Are Harvey and Doris Robinson?
In
1968, inspired by the paperweight in the Orson Wells 1941 film classic
“Citizen Kane,” Harvey Robinson went looking for a snow paperweight to show
to his children, then 16, 14 and 6 years old. As he traveled - and in those
days he did extensively - he stopped into antique and gift shops but he
never found what he was looking for.
However, in his quest, he found a few glass paperweights. Intrigued, he
brought home two paperweights. One was an inkwell, probably made in an Ohio
glass factory; the other was a Murano crown paperweight. Then, in an effort
to find out what he had actually bought, he went to the local Library to see
if there were any books on glass paperweights. Books! That was one of his
best early decisions.
With a copy of Hollister’s “Encyclopedia of Glass Paperweights” as
reference, he was able to shop with much greater discrimination. But in
those days good paperweights were hard to find. During one of his visits to
a local antique shop, Harvey was referred to a paperweight collector who
very kindly asked him to come to his home to see his personal collection of
paperweights. That’s when his love affair with these intriguing glass
objects really began.
In 1969, on a vacation trip to Martha’s Vineyard with his wife, Doris,
a chance stop at an antiques and gift shop turned up a Perthshire
Paperweight. Harvey recognized that he had discovered a true treasure!
Having learned in his travels and his visits to antique shops, that
good quality paperweights were not readily available, he decided to start
importing and selling Perthshire Paperweights to the finest shops he could
locate. Finding an active market, he soon expanded into buying and selling a
full line of high quality modern and antique glass paperweights to both
shops and paperweight collectors.
It took no more than a few years for Doris to develop an interest in
paperweights. Who could resist? She joined him in the paperweight business
in 1973. Together they have had many adventures: traveling to and exhibiting
at Paperweight Conventions and local Paperweight Chapter Meetings; visiting
paperweight factories in U.K. and France; seeking out paperweight artists;
attending auctions of paperweights in the United States and England. An
added bonus has been the friendships that were made over the years with a
variety of people who were associated with paperweights.
As a team, they have accumulated a total of over 50 years of
paperweight experience and expertise.
As for the children, now grown in their own homes, they are still
waiting to see the snow paperweight that Harvey was going to bring home to
show them so many years ago.
Harvey is a
member of the New England Appraisers Association.
