Custom Shadow Box Awards and Ceremonial Keepsakes

It is a recessed frame, deep enough to hold a physical object under glass, with an engraved plate mounted below it. Instead of describing a moment in text alone, it keeps the thing that made the moment: the gold shovel from a groundbreaking, the scissors from a ribbon cutting, the gavel from a term of office. Eight of the ceremonial styles here are 9" x 12" x 1-1/2".

The Gold Shovel Shadow Box is the standard choice, and the Gold Hard Hat Shadow Box is the usual companion piece when several people turn the first soil. For a rail, pipeline or utility first-cut, the Gold Spike Shadow Box is the closer match. All three are 9" x 12" x 1-1/2" and price from one piece, so a ceremony with three or four honorees does not need a minimum run.

No. The ceremonial object arrives already gold-plated and finished, and it is not imprinted. Your wording goes on the engraved plate mounted below it inside the frame. That plate is listed at 6" W x 1" H on most styles and 4" W x 1" H on the Marine Swords Shadow Box, which in practice means one line of text plus a date.

At 1 inch high on a 6 inch wide plate, one line reads cleanly and two lines start to crowd. Put the occasion and the date first, since those are what someone reads from across a room, and keep names and titles short. If the citation genuinely needs several lines, a wall plaque with a larger plate is the better format and we will say so when we proof it.

Not on the ceremonial keepsake styles. The Gold Shovel, Gold Gavel, Gold Hard Hat, Gold Hammer, Gold Spike, Scissor, Key to the City and Marine Swords boxes all carry no setup charge, which is unusual across our award range and is what makes a single presentation piece affordable. The shadow box picture frames are different: those carry an $80 setup and price as a run.

One. The ceremonial boxes price at 1, 5, 10 and 25 pieces on most styles, and at 1, 10, 15 and 25 on the Gold Spike Shadow Box and the Shadow Box Scissor. The three shadow box frames are the exception and start at 24, with breaks at 24, 72, 144 and 288, because they are produced as a print run rather than assembled individually.

Depth and contents. A plaque is flat and carries an engraved or printed message on its face. A shadow box is a recessed frame with enough depth, 1-1/2 inches on the ceremonial styles here, to hold a three-dimensional object under glass with a plate beneath it. Choose a plaque when the words are the award, and a shadow box when there is a physical object from the occasion worth keeping.