Hi Lynne,
I thought I would post a little information on why we do small limited editions sometimes.It is not for commercial reasons as such,although we do hope the smaller edition size makes it sell better.The main reason, as Ray hinted at, is that there is a finite amount of time that is available in a year to do all the lampwork.If a weight takes 4-5 hours to do the lampwork and then we put even just a 100 edition size on it,then it would eat up almost a quarter of the years lampwork time.As there is only myself and Linda Campbell who constitute the lampwork dept at Caithness we would not get many designs out each year.In the recent past we have been sent down the road of higher edition sizes with the subsequent reduction in time spent on the designs.This affects things like small details etc,however as from this year we have persuaded those in power to let us return to the smaller more intricate editions.This does mean they cost a bit more, although as one of our dealers told us at a recent tradeshow,the same type of weight from Baccarat or St Louis costs double.Hopefully quality will triumph over quantity :lol: .
In the past we have done many very small editions as far down as only 15 numbers and not forgetting the "one-offs" which I think is any collectors goal;to have something no-one else has,whether it is stamps, China plates or baseball cards.
By the way,as far as the penquins are concerned,I was glad they were such a small edition because they drove me mad making them.Getting the little (Insert your own expletive as we are not allowed to swear on the message board :lol: ) to stand up long enough for the glass to get put over them was a nightmare.and to cap it all it was a double lampwork pick-up as well.Suffice to say it was a long time in the making of each weight,but worth it in the end I suppose in hindsight (now the nightmares have faded :wink: ).
Anyway I hope this helps and I hope you do well on your E.bay sale.
Allan