CAITHNESS GLASS

This is a Caithness glass paperweight, a wedding gift and I suspect a "previously owned" one. Never mind. It is quite pretty, if useless. The dirty haze over the top is dirt. It hasn't been washed after its years in the store room and I didn't notice the dirt until the camera did.

Caithness Glass was started in Wick, Caithness, in the far north of Scotland in the early 1960s based on an idea of the late Lord Thurso. It made all sorts of things, not just paperweights.

I don't know why it failed there but the factory was moved to Perth. It was sold to Edinburgh Crystal and then to Spode. I think. I would not swear to these facts. I'm sure there are Scottish blippers who know the history of the company far better than I. I do not know if it even exists any longer.

I know the paperweights can be bought on eBay for as little as £10, previously owned, of course.

This is a cheesy blip, shot in my little light tent so that it does not reflect the windows and the trees outside the windows. Cursed crystal balls. I've had this trouble before.

My back has gone snap, crackle, pop again. I'd hate to have to bump along our lumpy road in search of something more Tuscan. Maybe tomorrow.

For the record: + 11 C, partly cloudy. Sunrise at 7:25; sunset at 5:41. Builder here in the morning to figure out ventilation for the store room. A parcel of trousers arrived for Himself, with luck less baggy than his usual.