418 - Lego anniversary gold brick and pin 1x1, 585 yellow gold, awarded by Lego GmbH, in cases

Lego anniversary gold brick and pin 1x1, 585 yellow gold, awarded by Lego GmbH, in cases 585 yellow gold. From the possession of a long-standing employee of Lego GmbH, the brick awarded for a service anniversary, the pin for merit within the company. 1) Gold Lego brick, also called gold brick: eight cylindrical studs on the top, underside with three tubes in classic Lego construction, in the same dimensions as the plastic Lego brick 2x4, on one long side a rectangular fineness mark. In matching blue plastic box with blue velvet insert and embossed "LEGO" company logo in the lid. Good condition commensurate with age, the fabric lining of the box on the inside with the "LEGO" lettering detached and only loosely inserted, slight patina. 32x16x11 mm (WxDxH), weight 25.5 g. 2) Pin in the shape of a 1x1 brick with one stud, base surface matt, reverse open with one tube, stamped "585" and "P.KL" on the rim of the reverse for the Copenhagen jeweller Povl Klarlund, long pin with clasp sleeve. In white case with gold-coloured lid embossing "POVL KLARLUND". Good condition commensurate with age. Brick of the pin 7x7x5 mm (WxDxH), weight 2.5 g (with clasp). The Lego Group goes back to the workshop of the carpenter Ole Kirk Christiansen, who began making wooden toys in Billund in 1932; the company name was coined in 1934 from the Danish "leg godt" (play well), and in 1958 the company patented the interlocking brick with tubes on the underside, whose construction the classic eight-stud brick still has today. From 1979 Lego awarded bricks of 14-carat gold to selected trading partners and to employees with 25 years of service; after the headquarters in Denmark had prohibited awarding them to trading partners, the remaining examples went to employees celebrating an anniversary, and the company has never disclosed how many anniversary bricks there ever were. Among Lego collectors the gold brick is regarded as the "Holy Grail". Far rarer than the brick is the pin: even among connoisseurs of gold Lego bricks such an award was hardly known, and only one other example can be traced on the auction market to date. The pin, a lapel pin in the shape of the brick with one stud, was made on behalf of Lego by the Copenhagen jeweller Povl Klarlund (1917 to 2008); Klarlund, born in Ramme near Lemvig, watchmaker and company founder, opened a watch and jewellery shop on Copenhagen's Vesterbrogade in 1947, and from 1969 a shop on the Strøget shopping street was added; the house of Klarlund, today located at Østergade 22, was sold to Axel Pitzner in 1989 and taken over by Bucherer in 2023.