Were paperweights ever necessary?

[Scarby9]

On a wide scale?
I'm taking half an hour to wind down at the end of the working week, eating houmous and watching an old episode of the Antiques Roadshow on Yesterday. There is a beautiful old (18C?) paperweight which got me thinking.
Were old houses so drafty that people were always having to weigh down papers to prevent them blowing away?
Or were they originally the old equivalent of paperclips - a way of grouping papers into sets for organisational purposes?
Or have they always been a bit useful, but mainly an excuse for a decorative object?

I'm
Not sure, but they are nice!

I use weights to keep papers from being disarranged when I'm sorting and filing stuff. This is mostly not because of draughts though but to save them being sent flying whenever FudgeCat decides to skitter around the room using all available surfaces apart from the floor!

I agree! Definitely desirable objects, but were they ever really needed?

For throwing at annoying people maybe?

Can’t have been that drafty, they had candles

Good thinking on the candle front, @IEat.
So just an excuse for a heavy trinket then?

I can remember going to my dad's office in the late 70s. All paper and the copy invoices were very flimsy. Dad had several very essential paperweights. Windows or even closing doors blew papers about. Even the factory forman used paper weights to hold work chits etc down.

I think possibly paper was more flimsy back then? I remember seeing some old letters and they were very thin. I can imagine that even the kid of breeze you’d get from a window or from shutting a door would blow them about.

I have dozens of paperweights, never had a scrap of paper anywhere near them

Years ago I was in the Writers Building in Calcutta (government offices from the 19th century. Stuffed full of piles of paper on every surface, and ceiling fans trying keep the place a little cooler. Without paperweights it would been a blizzard of paper

Absolutely yes!

All fine and dandy until some fucker opens the door while a windows open!

And sheafs of paper were quite dry and light, modern paper is heavier and seems to have more water content.

My desk at work (in a school) is near the main doors. People stand in the doorway talking to parents outside and the wind sometimes blows my essential paperwork off my desk. I obviously need a paperweight. I use my stapler and dirty looks instead.

In a shop or something when someone opened the door?

I suppose as well you could potentially have lots and it was a way of keeping things together eg bills, receipts.

Come to think of it people in shops had those spike things to keep them in order and not blow away.

Also they are nice objects.

Hit the charity shops when they open lush, they're great for that sort of thing!

I used it to do the Asian calligraphy. The paper is so thin it can move while writing if it's not held. Maybe similar for olden days for writing letters etc?

I love how you were thinking this OP and even more that you posted about it. I was thinking the other day about what a great invention the stapler was.

My first job was in a photographic shop - think polished counters and cabinets.

We made out the sales on pads with carbon paper.

So, yes there were paper weights, and spikes,

I am not 100, this was in 1988...

Charming old shop, gone now of course

@EvilEdna1

Should you have dirty books at school? What with you being working there and everything... Could you not use a hole punch or something instead?

[quote TwoLeftSocksWithHoles]@EvilEdna1

Should you have dirty books at school? What with you being working there and everything... Could you not use a hole punch or something instead?[/quote]
Ha! It says looks. You obviously have a dirty mind .

We are certainly using them now, with all the school windows open at all times!

Colin Firth needed a paperweight in Love Actually!

I've got a collection of them, my most recent was bought for my 50th. My friends clubbed together so I could buy myself something and I bought a paperweight entitled friendship.

I got interested in them as a local art gallery/museum had a fabulous display of them mostly dating from the 19th century.

Until the photocopier became a cheap and widespread available option, anything that needed multiple copies had to be typed using carbon paper, and the thicker the paper, the fewer copies could be done at any time. I did an old fashioned secretarial course and setting up carbons was part of it, a nice thick sheet of headed paper for the top, the one that would actually be posted to the client, and then a carbon, then the file copy on a sheet of really thin coloured paper, and other carbons and different coloured copies for different departments in the office sandwiched along. If you were really heavy handed on the typewriter you could just about achieve four copies, so that was five sheets of paper, four of which were really flimsy, and four sheets of carbon paper. If you made an error that was five bits to tippex over and replace!

I have six nice paperweights nice for work. I’d be in a true muddle without them. Piles of paper need sorting and putting in order. That’s much easier if they are held on a table by a paperweight. Different weight for each subject.
They can also be used for tablecloth weights if we’re having supper with friends outside.
Pretty good for sewing too. No pin holes.