Topic: Caithness Museum Weights

[Frank]

First one on eBay

http://cgi.ebay.ie/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=290077316887

[daveweight]

Wrong Frank !

This was never in the Caithness Museum as it was not a Caithness edition - it was a commission piece and was nothing to do with the film  festival. It was to commemorate a conference some big firm held in Cannes.

Two or three of the Caithness museum pieces have already appeared on ebay - which were not in the Mellors & Kirk auction which is interesting as they must have been sold privately ?

[Wuff]

Correct - a few Caithness "museum" weights auctions (from the same seller) have already ended.

Now for the event - the seller (petsemosamoyed) states in the description "... made in 1985, this stunning paperweight is called Cannes March and was commissioned by IBM." - which agrees with daveweight's statement.

Whether the weight was in the museum or not, I cannot tell - but a weight with this name (though without image) was sold at the Mellors&Kirk auction (one of two in lot 756) - where petsemosamoyed seems to have bought a fair number - 6 already appeared on ebay.

[Wuff]

Sweetbriar has bought about 100 weights at the auction - and is beginning to put them on sale:
http://www.sweetbriar.co.uk/weightlist.php?maker=Caithness%20Museum%20Pieces

[Baked_Beans]

Sadly the links above have long-since expired . Here is a possible Caithness paperweight for the previous year, 1984. Also called Cannes March . Limited to 1500 . I have no idea if it was for IBM....certainly not the film festival which was in May .  Approx. 3 inches in height.

[Wuff]

As mentioned above - a weight of this name was sold at the museum auction (lot 756), though without image in the online catalogue.
At the time I had copied the details of the ebay auction (for my personal use): images are a bit poor - but this is definitely the same weight as Mike's.

Now - at first sight - there are some discrepancies:

Mike's weight is clearly marked 1984 - but seller on ebay mentions 1985 as date of manufacture - but further down gives the inscription as "1/500 Cannes March 1984". So it seems plausible that the 1985 is a typo - the weight may have actually been issued in 1984.

But then we have a discrepancy with the edition size: 500 (stated on ebay) versus 1500 (marked on Mike's). Now - this could be another typo - or the leading 1 was too faint on the ebay weight to be clearly seen. So to me it seems plausible that the actual edition size was 1500.

At least I can confirm IBM: though the image of the certificate is unsharp, it can be read "Cannes March IBM". The designer line is not filled in. It further states "This is to certify that this piece is number 1 of an edition of   ." - i.e. no edition size given: could it be that first an edition size of 500 was planned - but then IBM decided to order 1500 after all?

So there are a few open questions - but my final question is simple to answer : Mike - may we use your images for the Caithness catalogue on ScotlandsGlass?

[Wuff]

Just had another look at the museum auction web site - lot 756 states "... engraved CANNES MARCH 1984, No1/1500 ...".
So the question of the edition size seems to be solved: 500 was a typo.

[Baked_Beans]

Thanks  Wuff , that's great !

I'm very pleased to have been of some help for once !   ...and would be delighted if you can use the images on your wonderful, on-line research facility  :rah:

Ta , Mike.

[Wuff]

Thank you very much, Mike - this is appreciated!

[Baked_Beans]

Cheers Wolf, the pleasure is all mine ! ....thanks to the search fields here on GMB and all your help  :smg: