Topic: Etched Drinking Glass from Edinburgh.

[Mikey]

Hello All,

This is my first post here, so Hi to everybody.

I've recently bought a drinking glass which was produced for the 25th Anniversary of the Edinburgh Festival back in 1971. I'm mainly trying to establish who carried out the etching and who it was actually produced for.

I have an idea that it may actually be a reject that has been incorrectly etched twice. Hopefully you can see from the front image that the logo is of a bird in front of the castle, but I think the correct image is central to the 'Edinburgh Festival' wording and a second image has been etched over this, offset to the left and down a little. I can see & feel the deeper second etching.
The entire wording is 'Edinburgh Festival 1946 - 1971'

The letters 'KB' are etched 'freehand' on the very centre of the base. I assume this would be the etcher or possibly glass manufacturer?

The glass is heavy, the thick base of the top part, which resembles a large whisky glass, has some tiny air bubbles in it.

Dimensions: 163mm(6.5") tall. The base is 90mm (3.5") diameter. The top diameter is 90mm (3.5") The top part alone is 100mm (4") tall.

Hopefully the photos attach, and I hope somebody can throw some light on this for me.

Mike.

[chopin-liszt]

Hi and welcome. 
KB would be the initials of the engraver - the logo is acid etched, but the wording is hand done.

It hasn't been etched twice - that was the official "logo" of the '71 festival. (I was there. )
I would imagine it was made by Edinburgh Crystal. It's a shape they did use and they would, I imagine, be the first official company that would have been chosen for an Edinburgh Festival commemoration.

[Mikey]

Hello Sue,

Thanks for that, very helpful.
If only I'd actually googled 'Edinburgh Festival 1971' rather than Ed Fest 25th Anniversary or the like would have brought up the attached image, clearly showing the logo at the time. It's just a shame the black / white contrast is lost on the glass etching, which, I think, has a detrimental effect on the look of the thing.

Do you know if there's an archive of Edinburgh Crystal which might list commissions like this and a 'staff list' of engravers? I've had a bit of a look online but came up with nothing of much use.

Mike

[chopin-liszt]

  You've saved me some embarrassment too. I did not check the logo, merely relied on my memory, typed, then had a minor panic.

There might be some information here:
http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/

It's an ongoing project.

Under "Glassmakers and companies", I found this - the correct page for you.
http://www.scotlandsglass.co.uk/cms/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=182&Itemid=6

There is also this site, you may find it there.
https://www.replacements.com/crystal-edinburgh-crystal/b/002-800390

But you may need to contact the company to ask about the initials KB. It also might be harder to find commemorative stuff that is not their normal output.