Flowers always have been used as decoration on glass and ceramics. Sometimes the flowers are botanically correct and can be identified by collectors. Sometimes the flowers are imaginary. Early flower prints of large bouquets included flowers that could never have blossomed at the same time, although they were pictured together. Paperweight artists have been making weights with enclosed glass flowers since the 19th century. One of the most famous glass factories in France – La Compagnie des Cristalleries de Baccarat – opened in 1765. It began making paperweights in the 1840s, then stopped in the 1880s, although a few pansy and millefiori weights were made in the 1930s. There was a revival of interest in paperweights in the late 1950s, and Baccarat again made many of them. The pansy was the favored Baccarat flower, and about 25 percent of their flower weights pictured them. Most showed a single flower with bright green leaves and often a bud. The most common type had a pansy with buttercup-yellow and dark-purple petals. Baccarat and other glass factories made weights with many different flowers, like primrose, clematis, dahlia and buttercups, and also made them with lizards, ducks, fish and many types of fruit. The only vegetable weight we have seen was made in the United States. It pictured carrots, turnips, radishes and asparagus.

Q: My old upright piano was made by a company called Adam Schaaf. Its serial number is 39448. Inside there’s a small metal plate that reads, “World’s Columbian Exposition,” in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the landing of Columbus, to Adam Schaaf.” Is this plaque inside all Adam Schaaf pianos?

A: Adam Schaaf’s piano company occupied a six-story building on South Wabash Avenue in Chicago, the city that played host to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Schaaf opened his business in 1873, and pianos were made there until 1926. The serial number on your piano dates it to 1916, 23 years after the exposition. Schaaf probably displayed his pianos at the exposition and then continued to advertise the fact for years. The metal plate may have been placed inside all Schaaf pianos, or perhaps only in the models that were exhibited in Chicago.

This pansy will outlast a live one. It is a glass pansy in a Baccarat paperweight. The weight sold at a James Julia auction in Fairfield, Maine, for 16.

Q: My cousin is curious about her pressed-glass bread plate. It’s rectangular, roughly 8 by 10 inches, and is made of clear glass with nine frosted-glass U.S. silver dollars and six half-dollars. The date on each coin is 1892. We would appreciate learning more about this plate.

A: Your cousin’s bread plate dates from 1891-92, when the pattern, called U.S. Coin by most collectors, was produced at two U.S. Glass Co. factories in Wheeling, W.Va. It wasn’t made for long, because in May 1892 federal government inspectors ordered that production cease because the pattern illegally reproduced the image of U.S. coinage. Still, the pattern was produced for about six months and was used for a complete line of tableware, as well as lamps. A bread plate sells for $200 to $300 today.

Current prices

Current prices are recorded from antiques shows, flea markets, sales and auctions throughout the United States.

¢ Hall China sauceboat, Quartermaster pattern, white, 1940s, 10 inches, $35.

¢ Atlas Oats box, cardboard, image of Atlas on both sides, yellow ground, red letters, 7 1/2 x 4 inches, $120.

¢ Howdy Doody Phono-Doodle, lithograph paper over wood with image of Howdy when lid is up, Shura-Tone, 12 inches, $165.

¢ Gorham sterling-silver bowl, oval, floral repousse design, three-letter monogram, 1899, 10 inches, $405.

¢ Coin silver knives, Fiddle Thread pattern, c. 1850, Wm. Gale & Sons, NYC, 7 3/4 inches, set of 10, $650.

¢ Staffordshire dessert basket with underplate, blue and white, pastoral scene with three figures, cattle, sheep, river, home, 1802-28, 10 inches, $850.

¢ Hepplewhite-style chairs, satinwood, shaped crest rails, inlaid bellflowers, banners and leaves, c. 1875, set of six, $1,150.

¢ Weller vase, birds, berries and branches, cream ground, stamped, 8 inches, $1,305.

¢ Felix the Cat roly-poly candy container, original rope tail and whiskers, head removes for filling, papier mâchÃ, Pat Sullivan copyright 1922, 5 1/2 inches, $1,565.