Platinum News

If you’ve seen a bunch of children in sports gear running with a large wooden object all round Scotland you may just have seen the Queen’s Baton Relay which is the Commonwealth Games equivalent of the Olympic Torch. The 2022 Commonwealth Games are due to be held in sunny Birmingham from 28 July to 8 August this year.The baton, which has a message from the Queen inside it, spent five days north of the border. It made stops in Inverness, Arran, New Cumnock, Glasgow, Bo'ness, Edinburgh, the Borders and Dumfries. Next it will be carried around Northern Ireland, then Wales and finally finishing at the Birmingham 2022 opening ceremony on 28 July. It even has its own part of the official games website!

It’s been on its way since 7 October 2021, when the Queen placed the message inside the torch at a special event at Buckingham Palace. This games is a fine tribute to the Commonwealth in this Her Majesty’s platinum jubilee year, though nobody is sure if she will actually make an in person appearance at the games. The relay undertaken by the baton has taken in the 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth. The idea is to inspire folk to come together and feel that community spirit ahead of the Birmingham 2022 event. It’s certainly seen a few sights tripping round Scotland.

Now for groundbreaking stuff, this games is set to award more medals to women than men for the time in a major multi-sport event. It’s just the thing to please the queen. The Baton has been specially created by the very best of local designers and engineers from the West Midlands and it’s a tribute to the skill and mastery of artists and manufacturers. It’s not just any old lump of wood and metal, it has a 360-degree camera, which records and transmit images telling the story of its travels far and wide.  And because it’s the Queen’s platinum anniversary there is a strand of pure platinum woven into the very structure of the baton. I’m surprised it isn’t enormously but even small children have been able to carry it! Though I hope they have it insured!

And of course James Pirie is no stranger to that fine fusion of art and technology that marks our very fine products from the common herd and makes many of them almost instant family heirlooms, precious objects to be handed down across the generations. Our Royal Scot Crystal showcases the very finest British hand cut crystal tableware and giftware. We have been around since 1890 and many of our designs are classics, dating back even further to the skilled glassmakers of the 18th & 19th Centuries. Each piece can only be made by the finest craftsmen and women, each piece finished by hand.  Take a gander at this half priced tumbler and decanter set and you’ll see what I mean. Gorgeous isn’t it?

 https://www.jamespirie.com/brands/royal-scot-crystal/edinburgh-whisky-set-sq-spirit-decanter-2-whisky-tumblers-presentation-boxed-royal-scot-crystal.html