Mark of Champions – Abercrombie Engraving selected to engrave the Louis Vuitton Cup

Abercrombie Engraving was selected to engrave the prestigious Louis Vuitton Cup in 2014.

This was my first time engraving an award of international significance and the highlight of my career to be given this opportunity.

The Cup represents an international yachting competition that sees challengers battle for a spot in the subsequent America's Cup finals. The award is named after its main sponsor, the luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton.

An ongoing partnership

For over 20 years, Abercrombie Engraving has had the privilege of engraving for the Royal NZ Yacht Squadron. The squadron’s previous engraver was an employer of mine during my jewellery apprenticeship. Eventually, this contract was passed on to me. The position involves engraving all the group’s trophies and cups for their annual prize-giving and other Series Regattas throughout the year.

The engraving process

As no font was available for me to match the award’s existing engraving, I had to create a new template for the wording. This had to be the exact size in height and length. The cup itself is enormous (around 50 cm tall) and the top is about the same in diameter. The process took several hours, to ensure the templates were perfect.

Next came the task of engraving the details onto the base of the cup. As the base is sterling silver, the engraving needed to be deep enough to withstand cleaning and polishing and not be rubbed off over the years. We engraved several times to achieve the correct engraving depth.

For bespoke, precision engraving projects such as these, it is common to spend a large amount of time on the finer details. The total time of this project from start to finish was more than eight hours. For small trophies and medals, we use computers, however, the same attention to detail applies.

If you are in need of precision engraving services, please get in touch to discuss your requirements.