THE ENTIRE contents of the Waterford Crystal factories, stores and sites in Waterford and Dungarvan go under the internet hammer today as every single item on the premises is for sale.
A star item of the sale will be a full-size replica of the Millennium globe which is lowered on to Times Square in New York every New Year’s Eve.
Even the main furnace for the blowing of the legendary crystal is on offer. Gordon Standing of McKay and Associates, the Dublin-based auctioneers, said there was a valuation on it. They would never disclose the guide price, but it had to be met.
The sale, titled “ancillary and support equipment from a glass manufacturing facility”, includes eight generators, glass machinery, mainly glass cutting and polishing machines, lathes and milling machines, wood saws, 16 pallet trucks and several pallet wrappers as well as specialised laboratory equipment.
Some 250 parties have been interested so far. They come from Syria, India, the US, eastern Europe, Britain and Ireland.
Waterford Crystal, which in the 1950s rose from the ashes of the Penrose Old Waterford Glass company in the city, became the personal favourite of media mogul Sir Anthony O’Reilly who, with his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris, pumped hundreds of millions of euro into the business.
Everyone interested in glass, from industrial manufacturers to students at the National College of Art and Design, has viewed the contents. At its peak, Waterford Crystal employed in the region of 800 people.