Queens College Cambridge Paperweight Mathematical Bridge Hand Cast Glass Boxed

A hand cast glass dome paperweight over a colour photograph of the Mathematical Bridge at Queens' College, Cambridge, with punts on the river beneath it. The base is finished in green felt carrying a printed label reading Hand Cast Glass, Individually made, QUEENS COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, and a brass plate reading A NIGEL PAIN PRODUCT, CORFE MULLEN, DORSET, ENGLAND. It comes in the original black card box with a typed label.  The bridge in the picture is worth knowing about. It was built in 1749 to a design by William Etheridge, and its arch is formed entirely from straight timbers set as tangents to a curve, with radial members bracing them, so a curved bridge is made without bending a single piece of wood. The persistent story is that Isaac Newton built it without fasteners and that nobody has been able to reassemble it since. Newton died in 1727, twenty two years before the bridge went up, and the timbers have always been bolted. The dome itself is doing an optical job: the thick curved glass acts as a lens and magnifies the photograph beneath it, which is why the punts appear to sit forward of the paper.  Condition is very good. The dome is clear with no chips or bruises found around the base edge, the photograph is bright and unfaded, and the felt and brass plate are intact. The box is sound with light wear and its typed label present.  Measured against a rule the dome is about three and a half inches across.