Information and History

Short summary of the sources used for the catalogue on Scotlandsglass, and status of the work completed.

Caithness Paperweights on Scotlandsglass

Introduction / Sources / Years Completed / The Catalogue

Introduction:

Many collectors of today consider "We Came in Peace" (commissioned by Harrods in 1969, to commemorate the landing of Apollo XI on the moon) to be the beginning of paperweight production by Caithness - although there was no paperweight department at the company at that time. The first "official" paperweights were produced later in 1969 - the planets Mars, Mercury, Saturn, Venus - abstract paperweights designed by the late Colin Terris.

Scotlandsglass is working on a "complete" (as far as that is possible) colour catalogue of the paperweights produced by Caithness since this beginning. This summary will describe the sources used and which years have been completed to date.

Sources:

The main source are the sales brochures (guides, catalogues, leaflets) and the Reflections magazine, provided by Caithness Glass Co. Ltd.:

sample page	years covered	description and comments
	1969 - 1979	Caithness Collectors' Guide (volume 1)
	1979 - 1983	Caithness Collectors' Guide (volume 2)
	1983 - 1987	Leaflets: partially also referred to as Caithness Collectors' Guide (volume 3)
	1988 - 2004	Sales brochures: usually two each year, named differently over the years; for consistency they will be referred to as main and summer catalogues
	2005 - 2009	Digital images, provided by Caithness Glass Co. Ltd.

Further images are taken from leaflets on special occasions (which are then listed below) or provided by individuals, either posting on message boards dealing with paperweights, or selling on ebay or other auction sites: such individuals were approached and asked to give permission to use their images (with copyright remaining their's, of course); fortunately most people were very helpful, occasionally even supplying additional images; only some sellers would not respond - and sellers explicitely refusing permission (which was accepted, of course) were the rare exception.

Now - what about you ?

Do you own Caithness paperweights not listed in our catalogue - or listed with poor images? If you are able and willing to contribute to the completion of the catalogue, please, contact the paperweight manager - let us know what you could contribute, and we'll discuss the best way how to contribute.

We need your support to improve this project !

Years Completed: "completed" indicates that images in the above mentioned main sources are available online; images of paperweights published in special leaflets, or not at all, may still be missing. Please, keep in mind that a catalogue like this will never be "really complete".