Upright Shaded Yellow Rose
Charles Kazium, circa 1950s
Kaziun Paperweights
Charles
Kaziun, born in 1919 in Massachusetts, was a self-taught glassworker who learned
by watching glass artists at fairs in the 1930s. After working in New York,
he went to work for the same people from whom he had learned the basics. He
was working with home-made lamps at this time, and developed ways of making
high quality work without a furnace. In 1942, he was hired by the University
of Pennsylvania, where under the tutelage of James Graham, he became proficient
in making canes, including silhouette canes, and filigree.
Kaziun was a friend of Emil
Larson, whose roses he studied and tried to copy for three years until he
finally succeeded in making one. Kaziun was assisted by August Hoffbauer, a
German glassworker who built a furnace for Kaziun, and taught him some of the
formulas and techniques of the trade. Kaziun's goal was to rival the skill of
the great French paperweight makers.