John Deacons
John Deacons is a distinguished Scottish glassmaker, widely recognized for his finely crafted paperweights and a key figure in Scotland’s modern paperweight movement. Born in Edinburgh around 1950, Deacons initially trained at the Edinburgh College of Art and soon gravitated to glassmaking, joining Strathearn Glass in Crieff in 1967. In 1968, he moved to the newly formed Perthshire Paperweights, where he spent about a decade honing his craft and working on high-quality millefiori and lamp-worked designs under the leadership of glass-arts pioneers.
By 1978, Deacons founded his own company, initially under the name J Glass, producing paperweights marked “J” (for the cane motif), and later under his own name. His style reflects a deep admiration for 19th-century French and Bohemian paperweights, with repeated themes such as concentric millefiori “pavilion” weights, latte-latticino grounds (“lace” or “muslin” backgrounds), and silhouette‐cane motifs (animals, thistles, etc.).
After the economic downturn in the early 1980s, Deacons scaled back production to a smaller “studio” model, working from a converted barn with his son Craig joining later, and producing limited‐batch, artisan lines. Collectors prize John Deacons’ paperweights for their technical precision, artistic elegance and the strong lineage they represent within Scottish art glass. Many pieces carry signature canes such as “JD”, “J” or the “StK” cane (for the “St Kilda” line) making them highly collectible and identifiable.
