Topic: Czechoslavakian Chrysophase glass. AND Cellophane

[Frank]

Marcus could you have a look at the Czech vases on the first row of THIS PAGE please. I would love to ID the glassworks and have been trying for only 20 years so far, ditto the second row which might not be Czech/Bohemian etc.

[Sklounion]

Hi Frank, With my less than perfect knowledge, the most obvious candidate amongst Czech/Slovak/Bohemian glassworks for this glass may well be Ceskomoravske Sklarny, at Krasno nad Becvou, not to be confused with Krosno, Poland. They appear to have had some similar glass, though not necessarily the forms. Examples that spring to mind are those one-offs, designed by L. Smrckova, @ 1940, Bohemian Glass, Drahatova and Langhamer for Crystalex, Novy Bor, 1985?, and Modernes Glas Von Ludvika Smrckova, M Holubova, Artia, Prague, 1961.
I do not currently have examples of their labels. Ivo?

[Frank]

The one labelled exampled, shown, included the word Chrysoprase and part of Czechoslovakia, the rest was illegible. The label was either embossed on silver coated paper or printed with a thermographic silver ink. That places it betweem the thirties to late sixties. I cannot see it being later. It also occurs in a pastel blue ground and a pastel pink ground. I feel it is 50's. It is certainly not a one off design as it occurs in so many shapes and is often styled with the fifties version of Art Deco as well as more traditional shapes.

Ivo has thought about it in the past, I never let anyone who shows some interest in this area get away without their thoughts. :twisted:

We will get there in the end. Thanks.

[Sklounion]

Sorry Frank, was pointing in the direction of the type of glass as used for a series of one offs, not that the forms themselves were one-offs.

[Sklounion]

Hi Frank,
Having gone back and looked at several images this morning, the glassworks above may be a good candidate as possible producers of cellophane glass as seen in line 2, the green/brown colourway.
Marcus

[Frank]

I googled Ceskomoravske Sklarny but did not get very far as everything was in Czech, one was an auction listing but no image.

The 'Cellophane' glass is quite unusual being a very thick glass, typically 3x-4x the thickness of Monart. Quality is high and I wonder at how such heavy pieces were made. Pontils are ground and polished. Colour most commonly found is the Green/Orangey-Brown as shown, Blue/Red appears less frequently and other colourings from time to time.  The colour has an unusual quality, fully translucent, that I have not seen elsewhere. It is the similarity of the colouring to old cellophane sweet wrappers that lead to my term for the glass. Very difficult to get across in a photograph. There appears to be many designs and I have several more still to include on the site. Generally they exhibit sufficient wear that suggests a date as early as the 1920's being possible and most surface in the UK, usually described as Monart. Some years ago a collector reported seeing an example at the Passau Glass museum but did not take any notes. When I went there could find nothing even close and at the time of my visit there was no one available to give advice.

I have added some images and improved all of the other images on the page now. LINK

[Sklounion]

One of the major difficulties with Czechoslovakian glassworks is the difficulty in establishing the post-war histories of glassworks during the years of communist control. The expulsion of Sudeten Germans, with the changing of placenames, Carlsbad to Karlovy Vary etc did not help.
Following the nationalisation of the major industries in 1945, things got even more uncertain. For example Borocrystal based in Novy Bor, consisted of 55 glass workshops (1948) but according to some sources, by 1951, the Borocrystal Narodni Podnik had closed 30 workshops, with another nine devolved???? (Closed/Making different product???Transferred to other national corporations???) Nor is it easy to find out which workshops were involved, which closed, etc.

Centralised planning and organisation linked companies together, and few factories kept original names. Moser and Egermann just hung on to their names,  as pragmatists realised the importance of quality brand-names.In 1951, the first re-organisation of the glass industry, towards the end of the First Five-Year Plan, created eight Narodni Podniks, covering 43 factories. Changes, re-structuring, renaming happened on a regular basis.

I am working my way through this morass, to work out a chronology of post-war Czechoslovakian glassworks, but it is slow going. Once I have more on Cesko-moravske, will post it for you.

[Sklounion]

Frank, Ivo,
What info do you have on a company called S. Reich and Co? It would appear that Reich had some 14 factories around the Krasno nad Becvou area, pre-war and that at least some of these became part of Ceskomoravske Sklarny.

[Frank]

Ivo is away. In his book he mentions:

S Reich & Co. Glasfabriek, Krasno CZ 1855-1939 - Lighting and shades.

[Ivo]

Hi guys I'm back from a most interesting romp around Vienna, Bratislava and Budapest.
The complete catalogues of S. Reich were published 2003 by Geiselberger (PK2003-2-2); they are reprints from the originals which are in Okresniho vlastivedného muzea Vsetin and Valasske Mezirici.  The first available one is from the 1860s, then there are catalogues from 1873, 1880, 1925, 1930, 1934, 1935, 1936.  With a bit of luck you can get them from Geiselberger in PDF format. How's your German, Marcus?