Sparkling Innovation: Bohemian Glass
Origins
In 1835, the French government sent a delegation of spies to Bohemia. The mission: acquire samples from its glass makers and return to France. They studied the glass and wanted to emulate it. Within the next year the Société de l’Encouragement pour l’Industrie Française announced a prize for the best French imitations of Bohemian glass, undoubtedly using the imported trove for comparison and judgment.
In a country that had supreme confidence in its own design supremacy, how did Bohemian glass become an ideal that the French strove to match?
It’s the proverbial long story.
But although the history of glass extends back 5,000 years, this story isn’t going to be that long! Skipping past the Egyptians, the Hellenic world, the Romans, the Islamic world, and the Venetians, we arrive in Central Europe in the medieval period where a rather unsophisticated glass industry had grown up along the forest-lined rivers, producing utilitarian waldglas (forest glass), named for its deep green color. Around the 15th century, a number of forces would start a glass-making transformation.
Nuppenbecher (prunted beaker)
Germany, 1401 - 1600
Photo credit: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
Two of those forces were economic and social. The region was getting richer. Prague was accumulating wealth from Bohemian silver mines. Its upper class could afford luxurious objects and to prove their sophistication, they acquired the delicate, expensive glass of Venice. Domestic glassmaking evolved to meet those tastes and to also supply to the needs of the lower classes. Bohemia’s landed gentry soon recognized glass making as another money-making opportunity as well as a means to clear land for agriculture. The timber provided ash—an ingredient in glass—and fuel for furnaces. By the 16th century there were 24 glass houses in Bohemia. The deforestation became so acute that Emperor Maximilian II tried unsuccessfully to suppress development of more glass houses.
A third transformational force was innovation in technique and form. We’ll first explore some Central European forms and then look at glass techniques.
A note about geography
Covering several hundred years of history in a region where borders shifted like waves on the sand can prove challenging. Over the course of its glassmaking history, Bohemia was part of the Holy Roman Empire, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and now Czechia. Glass production across Central Europe rose to prominence simultaneously and shared many design and technical elements. There were important glass making centers in the German principalities, Austria, and Silesia (now part of Poland) that are interconnected with the story of Bohemian glass. Although our focus is Bohemian glass, this story encompasses the larger story of Central European glass making, its styles, and production.
Drinking Vessels
What is the most practical and aesthetical way to consume beer and wine? In glass, of course. In Central Europe, the history of glass and drinking are inextricably linked. Venice had its own tradition of delicate stemware for wine drinking; however, its market was mainly the upper classes. Central Europe democratized glassware for a wider range of citizens who were primarily beer drinkers. From the 15th century to early 18th century a goblet or roemer, usually made from waldglas, was the most common vessel. The squat stems were often decorated with prunts which added grip for greasy fingers (the common use of flatware still in the future). Glassmakers added other simple decoration using the same green glass.
Roemer
Probably Germany, 1650 - 1700
Photo credit: (c)Victoria and Albert Museum, London
In the 15th and 16th centuries, the Bohemians mainly imitated the Venetians. They used a fine, soft glass to produce thin, almost colorless tableware in a range of shapes. However, in an innovation that foreshadows a trend in Central European drinking vessels, they went big. Bohemian glassmakers created their own form, a very tall flute (19 - 21 inches) with beading and trailed decoration.
The humpen developed over the same period as the roemer, starting as a simple canister form but eventually becoming highly decorated, principally with enameling, a glass painting technique. The capacious humpen, some as tall as two feet, was intended for communal drinking. The enamel decorations often represented the club, guild, or family that owned the vessel and used it for ceremonies and celebrations. Some of the most spectacular humpen displayed the double-headed eagle of the Holy Roman Empire or the coats of arms of various German electors.
Not surprisingly, where large communal vessels go, drinking games follow. Central European glassmakers adapted the humpen into the passglas. They divided the sizable vessel into multiple zones using trailed glass or enameled lines. The drinker had to drink a section in one continuous swig and then pass it on. If he missed the mark, he had to drink the next section until getting it right while undoubtedly hoping that it was good beer.
The marriage of the roemer and the humpen was the pokal, a large footed goblet that often included a cover. Like the humpen, the pokal could be a highly-decorated ceremonial vessel. Its communal use garnered the nickname gesundheitglas. It was also a form that became the canvas for Bohemia’s best known glass making skills such as staining, cutting, and engraving.
Photo credits: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
Technique Insight: Enameling
A process of painting decorative patterns or scenes onto the surface of glass using finely-ground colored glass, called frit. The painted vessel is refired at low temperatures to fuse the enamel to the surface. Gold leaf may also be used to gild the surface.
Watch a demonstration video.
Bohemian Innovation: Cutting Glass
A basic recipe for glass: take sand (silica), add an alkaline flux (soda or potash), sprinkle in lime, and place in an oven set to 2100°F/1100°C. Dip your blowpipe in the molten batch and blow a form. When it hardens, your glass will be green, like waldglas, because of naturally occurring iron in the sand. Adding manganese to the batch will “clean” the glass to produce colorless, transparent glass.
From the 16th through the 20th century, Bohemia and Central Europe took that basic recipe into new directions of color and technique. We will hit a few of the highlights.
In the 16th century, Bohemians experimented with the basic recipe for glass. By replacing the soda that the Venetians used with potash (created from burned wood), they invented a glass that was harder, thicker, and more brilliant. They eventually added chalk which created a glass similar to England’s leaded glass (commonly called crystal). With the harder, thicker glass, a Bohemian glass maker could cut and engrave it in the same way that gem engravers carved rock crystal and other stones. And with so many glass houses along rivers, they harnessed water power to run the cutting wheels used for engraving.
Caspar Lehmann, a Dresden gem engraver who spent most of his career in Prague, was a glass engraving pioneer. In 1605 he produced the Prague beaker, the first wheel-engraved, high relief glass vessel. As a reward for his skill, Emperor Rudolph II designated Lehmann as Imperial gem-engraver and glass-engraver, the first person to hold the title. He worked mostly on glass panels rarely repeating his original beaker. When he died in 1622, his Imperial title passed to his apprentice Georg Schwandhart who returned to his native Nuremberg and started Germany’s engraving school. That school managed to keep the skills alive during the Thirty Years War.
In the early 19th century, Bohemian engraving tradition continued with Dominik Biemann as the artistic descendant of Lehmann. Beimann was the John Singer Sargent of glass, famous for wheel-engraved portrait medallions. His work became quite fashionable and he did good business creating portraits of well-heeled visitors to the Franzenbad spa. (Today you can find a contemporary, albeit photographic, version of Beimann’s work in the tourist shops of Prague.)
Photo credits: By Uměleckoprůmyslové muzeum v Praze - Uměleckoprůmyslové muzeum v Praze, Public Domain; (c) Corning Museum of Glass
Technique Insight: Engraving
The process of cutting a decorative or figurative pattern into glass using a diamond-pointed or metal instrument or a rotating wheel, usually on hard, thick glass like Bohemian chalk glass or English lead glass. The legacy of Czech glass engraving survives to this day as you will see in this video.
Bohemian Innovation: Coloring Glass
For centuries glassmakers had added chemical compounds to glass to produce color and opacity. In the late 17th century, German alchemists were failing in their attempts to turn base metal into gold. Johann Kunckel, an alchemist who worked under the patronage of the Elector of Brandenberg, decided he had to try something new to keep his job (not unlike Böttger in Saxony). He added gold chloride to a glass batch. The result, rubenglas, was a deep ruby-colored glass, a desirable tint that had long eluded glass makers. It was also, not surprisingly, expensive. Bohemian glass makers soon found less expensive methods of producing and using red glass, a color that became ubiquitous in Bohemian production.
Covered beaker on ball feet with gold mounts
Germany, c.1700
Photo credit: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
After a lull in the 18th century, Bohemian innovation reawakened in early 19th century, inspired the highly-faceted cut glass of England and Ireland and ready to explore new color frontiers. In 1803, the glass houses owned by Georg, Count Buquoy, invented a creamy, opaque glass, first produced in sealing-wax red and later in jet black. They called their glass Hyalith. A few decades later in 1828, Friedrich Egermann patented his Lithyalin glass—it was also a prolific period for creative product names. He layered red and black Hyalith with other colors before shaping into vessels. The exterior was cut with concave lobes, giving the piece a grained effect, like a psychedelic piece of wood. Egermann’s second transformational invention was yellow and ruby staining. He brushed silver chloride (yellow) or copper (ruby) on colorless, transparent glass then fired it to fuse the stain to the surface and bring out its color. The glass appeared to be a solid color. Most often a glass decorator wheel engraved the piece to cut away the color, creating decorative and pictorial patterns. Competitive envy ensued. Egermann's rivals broke into his workshop to steal his notebook and copied the desirable technique.
Photo credits: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
The taste for Lithyalin glass faded by 1850, but not the taste for overlay glass made with a technique called flashing. Bohemian glass makers began combining colorless glass with opaque white and/or colored glass, then cutting through the colored layers in decorative patterns that revealed the colorless layer. For extra bling, glass makers added enamel and gilding. Bohemia displayed their glass prominently at international expositions and shipped the popular style around the world where it influenced European and American glass makers.
Photo credits: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
Technique Insight: Flashing
A layer of contrasting colored glass is layered over a cylinder of glass by dipping it in a furnace containing the contrasting color then turning the gather on a marver to fuse the layers. The piece is blown and manipulated into the desired shape then cut to reveal the underlying color(s).
Watch a demonstration video.
Joseph Reidel is responsible for the oddest Central European color innovation. In 1830 he added uranium to a glass batch resulting in an eerie yellowish-green glass that glows under ultra-violet light. And yes, it emits a small amount of radiation, which must have added a special quality to the sugar served in the bowl below.
Covered sugar bowl
England, 1840-60
Photo credit: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
The final innovation we will explore is iridescence. Although the origin of the technique is disputed, Central Europe has a claim. Excavated Roman glass was the inspiration for iridescence in the late 19th century. Glass makers attempted to imitate lustrous surfaces that occurred after centuries of burial. Tiffany Studios produced the best-known iridescent glass, branded as Favrile (more on Tiffany here). Frederick Carder and Steuben Glass Works developed their own iridescent formula, Aurene, prompting Tiffany to file a lawsuit. The lawsuit failed in part because the J. & L. Lobmeyr firm in Austria had used a form of iridescence before Tiffany invented Favrile. One Bohemian firm, discussed below, was a leading producer and an important Tiffany competitor.
Photo credits: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
Technique Insight: Iridescence
A blown glass vessel is sprayed with a thin layer of metallic oxides. The vessel is reheated in an oxygen-reduced furnace which causes the metals to rise to the surface creating a lustrous, reflective surface.
Watch a demonstration video.
Bohemian Glassmakers: A Continuing Legacy
By the early 20th century, glass making was as important as ever in Bohemia. In 1931, a French journalist reporting on the glass industry found that there were 148 glassworks, another 29 firms producing raw glass, and 4,000 factories and home workshops engaged in glass decoration employing 30,000 glassblowers and 90,000 glass decorators. Some firms did not survive the political upheavals after the 1930s while others still produce glass today. We conclude a brief exploration of two important Bohemian firms.
Johann Loetz started his glass firm in 1840. In 1848 his widow Susannea took control, renaming it Glasfabrik Loetz Witwe (widow). She controlled and ran it with one of her sons, eventually putting her grandson in charge in 1879. The grandson, Max Ritter von Spaun, took over at a time when art glass—as opposed to functional glass—was growing in popularity. He expanded the factory and was principally responsible for designing a range of art glass that became well known and critically acclaimed. He displayed Loetz glass at international exhibitions and won a Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris Exposition Universelle. In direct competition with Tiffany, Spaun introduced proprietary styles of iridescent glass at more affordable prices. Papillon was covered in iridescent spots giving the appearance of a butterfly’s wing. Squiggly lines and abstract patterns of lustrous glass covered pieces of Phenomenon glass. Loetz Witwe remained in business after Czech independence in 1918 and produced glass until the late 1940s.
Phenomenon vase by Loetz Witwe
Bohemia, 1902
Photo credit: (c) Corning Museum of Glass
In 1857 Ludwig Moser opened a workshop in Karlsbad providing glass polishing and engraving service for North Bohemian designers. The firm engraved goblets, home décor, and trinkets which proved very popular with visitors to the spa. Exhibiting at the 1873 Vienna International Exhibition, he received a medal and was granted an Imperial warrant to supply the Court. In 1893 he took over the glassworks at Meierhofen, creating a completely integrated factory from glass blowing to decoration. He operated the firm, Ludwig Moser & Söhne, with his sons Rudolf and Gustav and expanded again when they bought out their archrival Meyr’s Neffe.
Like other factories at the time, they produced iridescent glass as well as a wide range of art glass using enameling, gilding, casing, and carving on transparent and colored vessels. They were particularly well known for transparent vases decorated with swirled colored glass that gave the appearance of stems and leaves across the surface. In the early 20th century, designers from the Wiener Werkstatte like Josef Hoffmann and Kolomon Moser (no relation) commissioned the Moser factory to produce their designs which adapted traditional techniques to their modern, understated aesthetics. As the 20th century progressed, Moser continued to attract independent designers and glass makers, setting the stage for Czech studio glass in the 1950s and 1960s. Moser remains a prominent firm to this day in Karlovy Vary where the factory is open for visits.
Photo credits: (c) Corning Museum of Glass