Debby and Colin Mahoney and Marge and Gary McClanahan brought their new book with them to Tacoma, Washington, for the PCA, Inc. Bi-Annual Meeting held in April 2015. They hoped that The Complete Guide to Perthshire Paperweights: The Final Years was worth the wait and from the number of copies I saw flying off the sales table, it appears that paperweight collectors were avidly waiting for this book. After the Perthshire factory (Scotland) closed in 2002, the Mahoney and McClanahan team began working on this book to complement their first publication, The Complete Guide to Perthshire Paperweights, (1997). As often happens, life events got in the way until 2011 when work resumed on the textual and photographic tour of Perthshire productions in book form.

The book is divided into eight color-coded sections: Annual Collection, Christmas Weights, Limited Edition and General Range, Special Editions, One-of-a-Kind Weights, Related Items, Perthshire Paperweights Collectors Club, and Picture Canes. A bonus section is at the back of the 160-page full-color book, “Scrapbook,” where the men and women of Perthshire Paperweights are shown at work illustrating among other things the Lochaline Sand Mine where Perthshire acquired its sand, Johne Parsley instructing Perthshire employees, and a full bucket of reject paperweights.

Tips on recognizing weights made by Perthshire and a full glossary are included along with a spreadsheet tabulation of the limited edition and general range product years for the familiar PP numbers used by Perthshire beginning in 1969 and ending in 2002.

Over 400 different canes used in Perthshire paperweights are clearly illustrated along with 300 paperweights.

The book is dedicated to Neil Drysdale who as the authors describe it, “was the heart and soul of Perthshire Paperweights, having taken over the helm when its founder, his father, Stuart Drysdale passed away in August 1990.”

The two books, The Complete Guide to Perthshire Paperweights, (1997), and The Complete Guide to Perthshire Paperweights: The Final Years, (2015), bring to the paperweight-collecting world a complete catalog of all of the standard production designs made by Perthshire Paperweights Limited during their 34 years of operation.

1n 1986, the year that PCA TX was formed, Lawrence Selman reported in Paperweight News (Volume VIII, Number 3, August 1986) on two great collectors, Arthur Rubloff and Maurice Lindon. Larry observed first hand how these two collectors were often the last two bidders on a rare piece at auction, each raising the price on the other—ultimately breaking records with their purchases. Today the Arthur Rubloff Collection can be viewed at the Art Institute of Chicago where a recently remodeled gallery displays the work of paperweight artists from around the world astutely collected by this pioneer real estate developer in the Chicago-area. Maurice Lindon, a jeweler, started collecting in Eurpoe shortly before World War II and then sold his collection in 1957 only to begin collecting again with a selective eye. With Lindonand Rubloff bidding against each other at auction drove the price of the Pantin silkworm weight up to $143,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in 1984. You can see the Pantin silkworm glass paperweight showcased at the Art Institute of Chicago.