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Product box for Crystalex glassware
Object/Artifact
Square set-up/folding box. The lid is covered in printed paper with a deep cobalt-blue ground and an allover pattern of silver/metallic concentric-circle ("target") motifs in a loose grid — a 1970s–80s op-art-style design. The base is unprinted kraft corrugated cardboard. A printed manufacturer's label is affixed to the underside. The box appears empty in the images; no glass object is visible. Remnants of clear tape/cellophane survive at the lid corners.
2025.1.188
Belonged to Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
The Cabrera Arús family collection
2025.1
Crystalex
Nový Bor
Bohemia
Czechoslovakia
Eastern Europe
Europe
Maker: Crystalex, oborový podnik (branch/sector enterprise), Nový Bor, Czechoslovakia — the state glassmaking combine headquartered at Nový Bor. The label also carries the circular "Borocrystal" trademark logo, the combine's earlier name retained as a brand mark. Date: Circa 1974–1989 (inferred, tentative). Not printed on the object; bracketed below from the enterprise name and form (see Research Notes).
Lid: no lettering; silver concentric-circle pattern on blue. Underside label (paraphrased/transcribed): field marker "P"; product/article number "5125/40158/250"; price line "MC 87,— Kčs" (MC = maloobchodní cena, retail price, in Czechoslovak korunas); blank QC/packing column headers "Kontr." (kontrola, inspection) and "Bal." (balil/baleno, packed); maker line "CRYSTALEX – obor. podnik – Nový Bor"; circular logo reading "BOROCRYSTAL / ČESKOSLOVENSKO." Faint ink stamp near the lower edge of the base appearing to repeat the article number ("…40158 / 250"), partly legible.
Cardboard
Paper
Materials: Paperboard and corrugated kraft cardboard; lithographed/offset-printed paper lid covering; printed paper label; clear adhesive-tape residue. Technique: Machine-made set-up box; offset/lithographic printing on the lid paper; printed paper label.
Gertrudis Caraballo Gálvez
owner
Havana
Cuba
Caribbean
Central America
use
Nový Bor
Bohemia
Czechoslovakia
Eastern Europe
Europe
production
The name "Crystalex" was adopted in 1974, when the Nový Bor combine (previously Borské sklo / Borocrystal) was renamed; the "oborový podnik" designation and the Kčs retail-price line place the box in the socialist-era state-enterprise period, which ended when the firm was transformed into a joint-stock company after 1989. This brackets manufacture to roughly 1974–1989. The bracket is an inference from the label, not a printed date; recommend treating it as tentative.