Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Bohemia, Czechoslovakia, Czech Republic, Austria => Topic started by: Bonsaismurf on December 04, 2010, 11:15:26 PM
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How come some Sklo Union items have a "Bohemia Crystal"-label instead of the "regular" "Bohemia Glass"-label? I'm not referring to items produced by Jablonecke Sklarny and I'm well aware that "Bohemia Glass"-labels can be found on art glass as well as the pressed stuff. I think I've seen Jurnikls hobnail low vase/jardiniere (pattern no. 13227) labeled "Bohemia Crystal" on two different occasions.
Best Regards
Emil
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bohemian_glass
explains it quite well, I think.
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I'm not saying you're wrong, but it sounds a bit far fetched that the only reasopn is that they didn't differentiate the two linguistically?
Best Regards
Emil
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This is very interesting issue, we really have two different labels - both used by Crystalex and Glassexport.
I did not find any reasonable rule when was used Glass and when Crystal label, I will try to discover this issue. M ypersonal opinion is that it has somethingto do with marketing rather than with glass material.
Jindrich
www.webareal.cz/ceskoslovenskesklo
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Jindrich,
Is it ever the other way around, does crystal items have "Bohemia glass" labels? I have a Janku bird that I've seen with a "Bohemia Crystal" label, such as the third one in this post:
http://bohemiabloggen.blogspot.com/2010/09/glasdjur.html
On the other hand I have a ZBS figure and a paperweight (unknown factory) that has a "Bohemia Glass" label, but then again maybe those aren't crystal...I have plenty of Jablonecke candlesticks but I've never seen a "Bohemia Crystal" label on anything from that factory.
Best Regards
Emil
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There is now a third label. I bought this set of glasses (which are glass) recently. In reviewing the labels on my collection, and posting any not yet shown on the glassphotograps site, I noticed they have this label.
Ross
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There is a set of labels used by individual factories within Crystalex koncern.
Bohemia Glass and Bohemia Crystal are general labels used for whole Czechoslovakian glass production including also not crystalex factories, for example Sklo Union - Obas or Skrdlovice. Seems to me that this label have pieces exported by Glassexport (Skloexport(
For fun I uncluded two labels used by Glassexport for Soviet Union.
Jindrich
www.webareal.cz/ceskoslovenskesklo
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Can I suggest Jindrich that that set of labels would be an excellent addition to the labels section of the glassphotographs site - particularly that first photo with the multiple labels on it.
Ross
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For those interested in labels, I found a nice source for the Czech labels around 1991:
A few months ago I bought a secondhand booklet called 'Bohemia Crystal, Glass that conquered the world' by Antonin Langhamer and Ladislav Pekar. It was published in 1991 by Glassexport Ltd on the occasion of the Universal Czechoslovak Exhibition in Prague 1991. Not much of a read, but at the back, page 46 and 47 it shows a lot of trademarks and labels, including which ones were used at that time (in 1991 presumably).
Every factory has it's own symbol (and it conveniently lists the correct factory with each symbol). I counted 13 different symbols, excluding the special labels like Exbor, Moser and Skrdlovice. The symbol labels are ovals with Bohemia in big letters, Czechoslovakia in small print below that, the symbol of the factory and an indication of hand-made or cut crystal or not.
Kaliglass: yellow labels with black letters. If it's handmade, it says so on the label. If it doesn't say anything, it's machine made.
Lead crystal: blue label with gold letters. If it's handcut, it says 'hand cut lead crystal over 24% pbo' on the bottom of the label. If it's machine cut, it says 'fine cut lead crystal over 24% pbo'. If the label is red and it just says 'lead crystal over 24% pbo' at the bottom, it's pressed crystal.
From the text I think that this particular system of distinguishing labels was in use since 1989.
It says on the same page that the terms Bohemia Crystal and Bohemia Glass were trademarked since the second half of the fifties, but no explanation was given when they used 'glass' or when 'crystal' with the generic glassexport labels.
Astrid
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I suppose that scan from this Langhamer book (look for Crystalex) you can find at my web site, if not, I will fix it asap.
But this is not what we actually need, the best source for trade mark is web of Czech Industrial Property Office
http://www.upv.cz/en.html
where is stored the database of all registered trade marks. But the search engine is not the perfect one, and it is very difficult to access information about the old Czechoslovakian trademarks. I already wrote to my task list, that one sunny day I have to contact this Industrial Property authority and try to get some advice how to get all my old labels solved.
But we must not forget another issue. Many labels had not been registered as trade mark.
Knowing that labels and trade marks had minor importance in "socialist" Czechoslovakian glass industry, I did not pay proper attention to this issue.
Jindrich
www.webareal.cz/ceskoslovenskesklo
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This seems to be a useful booklet for labels https://www.glas-musterbuch.de/Bohemia-Crystal-1991.291.0.html