Paperweight production at George Bacchus & Co. in Birmingham must have been a sideline for the glassworks as the total number of weights produced during the classic period - late 1840s/early 1850s - is estimated to be only ca. 400-500. Bacchus weights generally display softer colours and a predominance of white, and for years were regarded as the “poorer cousins” of the great French glassworks; a view that is now finally being laid to rest as they are accorded the recognition they rightly deserve. Recent research indicates a second flourishing of the company’s paperweight production - referred to as Late Bacchus - in the 1870s, although these weights generally lack the delicate touch and high standards of classic Bacchus paperweights.

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