Topic: caithness p/weight can anyone tell me how rare please?

[Cazza]

Hello I have had an answer from Alastair copied and pasted below.
Seems it probably is a 1999 weight after all.
Do you have anymore thoughts on this please


Sorry  but I have no idea. I didn't make them and don't remember the design.  The number means that it is an unlimited edition.  A record was kept  of the numbers  daily.  These numbers were scribed onto each unlimited weight as it passed inspection, regardless of which design it was. The T refers to the year of manufacture. For some bizarre reason it followed car registration letters, even missing out I, O and Q.
Latterly it was further confused by some weights being made in Wick having a seperate Prefix.
If Caithness Glass can't tell you when it was made, I'm afraid there's not much else you can do, except perhaps pose the question on worldcollectors.net Caithness message board.

Best wishes,


Alastair

[Frank]

The difference between US/UK weights issue price was subject to current exchange rates, cost of shipping and the wholsesalers pricing policy - naturally it was loaded on the high side and was probably also based on marketability. As I add items to the SG cats I include the UK price list, where available, and this shows increases and decreases in prices for long running designs that can only have been arbitrary decisions.

Pre internet US imported items to the UK used (apparently not factually) an exchange rate of only $1 to the pound, making the items relatively more expensive in the UK. This types of price manipulations are a fairly normal business practise. Government tariffs also have an effect.

I would expect that the valuations given are based on B&M auction results in the period 1995-2003. This is the reality of price guides, they are all based on a distorted marketplace which the second-use market always has and always will. When I was collecting seriously, I would pay as much as it took to secure pieces I wanted in auction and was only beaten if someone richer bid against me. Ysart paperweights reached there peak when Parkington was collecting he rarely put a bid limit on - I sometimes bid for him and the instruction was to win. Sometimes we unknowingly competed as one of his other bidders had the instruction and glassware prices rocketed, also there was a third deep pocket bidding on Monart in the late 80's and he would never make an arrangement. eBay has helped prices reach more realistic levels as scarcity is more easily judged - lok what it did for Avon collectables that had sustained steady increases in value based on price guides - the bottom fell out the market when people realised that these were so widely available. Now only the rarely seen Avon's fetch reasonable money. The same applies to most mass produced glass with the notable exception of Lalique, but in that case here is a huge and wealthy collector base. People seem to forget that pressed glass was produced in huge quantities and if an item was made in the last 50-60 years there is no way to assess scarcity as most examples are still owned by the original buyers. Even really scarce Vasart glass has become a lot more available since 2000.

[Frank]

T was the designation for weights made in 1998. So weights appear to have been in production before the catalogue debut. This is also apparent in other series weights, where other designs in the series are photographed 2 years before the official  issue date at the time the first in the series is issued.

Which of course throws all ideas about dating precisely, out of the window 

Look at this page for official confusion on issue dates 73-75 1974 weights Note that 16 are listed as 1974 and 7 as 1975. The 6 in 75 are also shown under 74, so they only 'officially' produced one pendant in that year 

Can you send me larger images for SG please.

[Cazza]

Hi Frank yes would love to send you larger pics can you tell me how, I am usless at it,I have a 6 meg camera not sure if it makes any difference, this website will not allow me to send anything that has not been made smaller.
will await your instructions.

[Frank]

Just email to me using the envelope icon on the left of my posts. Up to 4mb per email, thanks.

[KevinH]

Frank's reply beginning, "T was the desiganation for weights made in 1998 ..." sums up some info I have also received via email, but have only just seen.

Alastair's comment (posted by Cazza) about the Caithness letter system following car registration letters is interesting, but seems to add a bit more confusion. "T" was the UK registration prefix for March to August 1999, so "T" should not have been used for 1998 weights, but either "R" (Jan to July) or "S" (August to December). This is made all the more complex by the fact the car registration period was August to July (not Jan to Dec) up until July 1998 after which it progressed, not too cleanly, into the 6-month periods Mar to Aug and Sep to Feb.  :huh: