WWI General John J Pershing 1917 Glass Paperweight-It appears that this was used as an ashtray at one point, as there are some burn marks on the Generals face, but these can’t be seen from the top side of this 4” round glass paper weight. There is an imposing image of General Pershing, with the name and the date of 1917 bordering his image. The image itself is in gold and the paperweight itself resembles a large coin. There is minimal gold loss on this artifact. It is still in very good condition (despite the cigarette coloring on the reverse). By the way, it does not smell like cigarettes for those of you who are sensitive to that. For those of you who need a history lesson on General John Joseph “Black Jack” Pershing; he began his rise through the ranks of the U.S. Army with distinguished service in the Spanish-American War and the Philippines. After this, he spent his career leading U.S. forces in pursuit of the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. After the United States entered World War I in 1917, Wilson bypassed five other major generals to appoint Pershing as commander of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF). U.S. armed forces expanded quickly during the conflict, and Pershing was tasked with turning some 2 million relatively inexperienced troops into a professional fighting force. Soon after he arrived in France with the first AEF troops in June 1917, Germany defeated Russia, freeing up large numbers of German soldiers to face the Allies on the Western Front. What a career! This is an interesting collectible.