Vasart / Lassman Concentric Millefiori Paperweight Handle Corkscrew. This corkscrew has a concentric millefiori paperweight handle. The firm of Lassman & Co. Designed and produced this corkscrew and a variety of other useful objects during the 1950s and 1960s. The attractive millefiori paperweight handle was made by the Ysart family of Scotland under the Vasart label. The handle has a two ring concentric millefiori pattern. The design is set on an opaque white ground. The chrome plated metal screw part and other hardware were made by Lassman and the assembly was also done by them. Note on white glare : Please ignore the white areas, they are glare from the light. Size: 1 7/16 diameter. With the metal hardware, it is 4 3/8 long. The paperweight handle has no chips, cracks or scratches. There is a tiny bit of white stray glass from the ground floating above the concentric design (not damage). The chrome screw shows a tiny bit of roughness or possibly wear. Signature : Unsigned, but I guarantee this is a genuine Lassman corkscrew with a Vasart paperweight handle. The metal part is marked / stamped “ENGLAND”. The maker of this item was Lassman & Co. Located in the Kilburn area of North London. Pirelli obtained them from Vasart. Pirelli also included the line in their 1959 catalog. For more information, see my page on Lassman & Co. The article by Angela Bowey and Allan Port “Pirelli, Vasart and the Ysart Family” in the Paperweight Collectors Association Inc. Lassman also made a line of large industrial sized corkscrews – called packing gland extractors and used for servicing nautical applications that required a waterproof seal. The birth of Scottish paperweight making is credited to the glass making family of Salvador Ysart, who moved to Crieff, Scotland in 1922. They worked first at John Moncrieff Ltd and made the earliest Scottish paperweights during that period. In 1946 Salvadore and his sons Augustine and Vincent founded Ysart Brothers Glass and produced glass wares under the. Salvador Ysart died in 1955 The company name was later changed to. Stuart Drysdale was hired manage the business side of the enterprise in 1960. The company evolved into a new company Strathearn owned by Teachers Whiskey. In 1967 Drysdale was sent a magazine article on antique paperweights (Woman’s Day, July 1965). The inspired him to try to produce weights comparable to the French antiques. With this goal in mind, he and several of the glass workers left Strathearn to found Perthshire in 1968. Allan’s Paperweights is owned by Allan Port. If in doubt, please check with me first. Please do not ask me to declare this a gift.
