DescriptionCrystalex gift box. Crystalex, Nový Bor, Czechoslovakia. A square cardboard box, its lid covered in deep cobalt blue paper printed with a repeating pattern of golden concentric circles, almost op-art in its effect. The base still bears the original factory label: “Crystalex, obor. podnik, Nový Bor,” with a product code and a price of 87 Kčs (Czechoslovak korunas). Crystalex was the state glassworks enterprise of Nový Bor, a town in northern Bohemia with centuries of glassmaking tradition. Under socialism it became one of Czechoslovakia’s major export manufacturers, producing decorative and functional glassware distributed across the Eastern Bloc and beyond. This box would have contained a glass item (a vase, a set of tumblers, a decorative piece) probably bought in Czechoslovakia by a visiting Cuban state worker, or received by them as a gift.