A Brief history of the Ysart Familys' paperweight making careers

The Ysart Family had a major influence on what we know as the Scottish paperweight factories of today. Their movements between factories, and indeed their creation of several can be quite confusing so below we have written an overview of their paperweight making times in Scotland. There is of course a lot more to the story but for those with a limited knowledge about the family this may help to clear things up:

Salvador Ysart was born in Barcelona in 1878 and worked in Glassworks from an early age. He married Enriqueta Moreno and had three sons while in Spain, the oldest being "Pablo" (Paul). In 1909 he moved his family to France and there they had a fourth son, Antoine. In 1914 he  brought his family to Scotland to escape the close proximity of the war to Paris .

As a glass maker by trade he worked in several glass factories in Scotland before joining the Moncrieff factory where his son Paul joined him, followed by his other three sons Victor, Augustus & Antoine. Together they produced a sideline of glassware known as Monart (the first part of the name from Moncrieff and the second from their surname).

During the second world war Moncrieff turned all their production to scientific and laboratory glass for the war effort and afterwards Salvador, along with Vincent & Augustine Left to form Vasart Glass as Moncrieff  had decided to continue along the industrial route and made Monart glass on a far smaller scale (for which Paul was entirely in charge. He had decided to stay due to falling out with his father and his relatively safe position there).

In 1963 the Teachers Whisky company approached Vasart to make an ashtray from squashed whisky bottles. Vincent accepted (his father had died in 1955) but by 1964 it was evident that Vasart glass could not produce enough ashtrays for demand and so it was decided Teachers would buy Vasart Glass, create a new and larger glassworks factory and rename the factory Strathearn.

Strathearn continued to make Vasart style paperweights and glassware alongside the ashtrays until 1980 when they ceased making paperweights and were taken over, meanwhile manager Stuart Drysdale (a soliciter who had originally joined Vasart in 1960 and had taken over from Vincent Ysart as manager of Strathearn in1965) left in 1968 to form Perthshire Paperweights.

Paul Ysart Continued making Monart glass at Moncrieff while making paperweights in his own time and was discovered in 1955 by Paul Jokelson the president of the US based Paperweight Collectors Association who contracted with Moncrieff to distribute Paul Ysart paperweights solely to the USA. These were signed with a "PY" cane.

In 1963 Paul left Moncrieffe to become training officer at Caithness Glass where he continued to make "PY" paperweights for America in his spare time (he did make a few paperweights for Caithness in 1968 which were sold in their gift shop without a "PY" cane but a blue Caithness sticker instead). He left Caithness in 1970 and in 1971 set up his own studio at Harland, Wick where he worked alongside William Mansen. In 1975 Paul Ysart Glass Ltd. was registered and his weights were now signed with an "H" cane (for Harland where they were made) while the PY was still restricted for Limited editions going to America.

In 1977 Paul created another company "Highland paperweights Limited, again based in Harland where he continued to work until his retirement in 1979.

So from one family of glassblowers an entire style of paperweights has been developed to create a mass market for those of us who enjoy collecting such marvellous pieces of craftsmanship.

Paul Ysarts son, Salvador & his wife Mary and Paul Ysarts two Grandsons Neil & Paul