Jewelry/Gift Engraving Etiquette Part 4.

Jewelry/Gift Engraving Etiquette Part 4.

www.engraversjournal.com/article.php/2241/index.html

:no: Just quickly glancing through the article I came across this which I must say I disagree with.

"The most common etiquette question relating to cup engraving is, “Which side of the cup does the message go on?â€￾ The correct answer simply depends upon whether the intended user is right or left-handed. For the engraving to be properly oriented, it should face away from the person holding the cup, tankard, etc.

In the case of a right-handed person, the handle should be to the left as you view the engraving (Fig. 5A) and vice versa for a left-handed person (Fig. 5B). Sometimes it’s unknown whether the recipient is right or left-handed. This is often the case with gifts and especially baby cups, where the infant’s natural inclination cannot be determined. In such cases, it’s generally safe to assume the person is right-handed since nearly 85% of the world’s population are right-handed."

Now, I don't know where the author gets his information but in England we have a Pub culture. Tankards belonged to 'regulars' and were usually hung up on hooks. The barman/woman would hang it up so it faced the bar; that is to say it hung horizontally from the handle with the top opening to the upper left and the bottom of the tankard to the lower right. The handle is then easily taken in the right hand and a pint of ale put into it...easy! Any engraving/identification marks can be seen because they face you. Likewise when placed on the bar by a right hander it faces the rest of the pub so they know who's tankard it is. (Obviously a left hander would be the other way around but still facing the drinker).

This guy has got it arse-about face! Any engraving will only face the barman and not the rest of the pub which rather defeats the purpose of engraving the tankard. The same applies to goblets in that the engraving should face the drinker but they don't have the problem of a handle.

Likewise when it comes to rings, this guy is definite that it should face away from the wearer. I was always taught that as it's the wearer that'll be looking at it most it should face him/her.

Perhaps, this difference in etiquette comes from differing cultures and that's why it's dangerous to assume a 'one size fits all' approach when it comes to etiquette. What might apply in one country would be laughed at, or frowned upon in another. :no:

then there's the age-old debate of which way lettering should run on a gun barrel- muzzle-to-breech, or vice versa?

Engrave both sides of the tankard, and charge double!

I have always been taught and have always engraved so that the piece can be admired. Engraving is always facing away from the wearer, this is especially true
with rings and bracelets and other such jewelry. I would believe it would be true for a baby's cup or tankard as well. there for I must agree with the author.

As for lettering on barrels. I think that is a trick question. u always read from left to right.

Not much in the way of admiration of the engraving if the tankard faces the wall when hung up or faces only the bar staff if placed on the bar top, though. This is what I mean about what may seem right in one place isn't necessarily the same in another. So what is right in a place with traditional pubs or where we still drink beer from tankards might not be right somewhere else. Engraving still has practical as well as decorative purposes and identification of one's tankard as it's set down on a table or bar top is one of them.

As for the lettering of barrels, it's not a trick question at all. Purdey believed the barrels of a gun should be able to be read when in their case so read from breech to muzzle. Holland & Holland (and the vast majority of other makers) believe they should be read when the gun is assembled and the barrels rest in the left hand so read from muzzle to breech. Both ways still read from left to right.

Marcus,

Thanks for the background on the gun barrels. I always wondered why the barrel legend seemed upside down when I was holding a Purdey.

Roger

the vast majority of the barrels i've lettered (mostly American custom rifles) were done muzzle-to-breech, the logic of the maker and/or owner being that everything starts at the rear and runs forward from there, just like the bullets. however, i recognize this makes it upside-down/backwards for the typical right-handed shooter holding the weapon with the fore-end in the left hand & the grip in the right.

i have an opinion on almost everything, but not this. whatever the client wants.

I carve hundreds of bracelets and also cast figurative rings. I always wear my bracelets, and rings so they face me, as do most of my clients. The figure is usually of significance to the wearer, family or clan totem or crest etc., and is usually identifiable whether it faces in or out. I realize this is from a completely different culture, but most wear them facing the wearer.

Marcus, the first thing that gives me pause is the word 'etiquette'. 'Protocol' or 'protocols' is the appropriate word.

There is no pub culture in the US; we have bars. Occasional where there's a British community they put up a dart board and call it a 'pub'.

There is still the prejudice that something in print is 'correct'.
Kevin P.