Hi everyone, I have been quite busy. But I am pleased to announce the Skrdlovice exhibition and forthcoming book. I know the book is quite expensive but it is a lavish volume with lots of unique photographs. It will really be the first book to be published on the subject. There is also mention of GMB (and this thread hopefully) too, in the resources section. Thanks for mentioning it in the recent post David. Hopefully it will be a good read for those who can get hold of a copy! I have tried to keep back some pieces of research that Jindra and I have done, to make the book as interesting as possible for most collectors! I will post the date at the end of April where it can be bought. Preorder interest can be logged with the books enquiry email at
www.markhill.netThe exhibition is quite short and I will see if I can get a photo of some of it to post here some time after the show. Please attend if you can, there are many pieces that I guarantee have not been on display in the UK before. It has been really interesting for me to see all the glass from the factory collected here from all parts of the world. Everyone has at least one piece I want, in some cases more!
Robert (bOBA)
(The last image is from my collection, the others are publicity images for the book and exhibition Images © Mark Hill Publishing Ltd
www.markhill.net).
Exhibition at Antiques For Everyone, at the NEC, Birmingham, England.
April 10th-13th
www.antiquesforeveryone.co.ukGlass from the private collections of Robert Bevan Jones and Jindrich Parik.
Skrdlovice & Beránek: Legends of Czech Glass
A New Exhibition & Book Skrdlovice is one of the 20th century’s greatest forgotten glass companies. For decades, the
company (pronounced ‘skerd-luv-itz’ah’), was hidden from the world behind the Iron Curtain, and the major contributio
n it made to 20thC glass design is only now being uncovered and reappraised by design historians and collectors. Founded in 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, by the enterprising and talented glassmaster Emanuel Berànek, the company’s earliest designs were produced using waste broken glass, peat to fire the furnaces -and a huge amount of raw talent and sheer determination. Against all odds, the company survived and flourished under Communist rule in the 1950s & 60s, exporting its vast and diverse range of colourful, curving glass across the world as far as Canada, Europe and Australia. From the 1950s until its demise in 2008, nearly every one of Czechoslovakia’s best and more influential glass designers worked with them including now globally revered names such as Frantisek Vizner. Designs were varied and absorbed influences from now well-known mid-century modernglass produced in Scandinavia and on the Italian island of Murano. Like the glass produced in Britain at the time by companies such as Whitefriars, Czech designers didn’t merely copy but added a strong Czech twist to develop their own highly recognizable look. Further experimentation from the 1950s onwards used a rainbow of colours and a breath-
taking array of ever more complex techniques to create truly world class designs. The arguable golden age of the company was the 1970s, and many designs produced by its successor, Beranek Glass SRO(active1993-2008) were designed then.This groundbreaking exhibition will comprise over 100 examples, including unique pieces, that will be displayed together in Britain for the first time ever. Typically mis-attributed to factories on Murano and Scandinavia, this unique and exclusive exhibition and the accompanying book published by BBC Antiques Roadshow specialist Mark Hill will uncover the truth behind this captivating and fascinating glass, and reveal the amazing story and key names behind it.
Exhibition at Antiques For Everyone,
April 10th-13th
www.antiquesforeveryone.co.ukGlass from the private collections of Robert Bevan Jones and Jindrich Parik.
A hardback book, limited to 1,000 numbered copies, will bepublished by Mark Hill Publishing Ltd in late April. Skrdlovice & Beranek: Legends of Czech Glass
By Robert Bevan-Jones & Jindrich Parik
General Editor: Mark Hill
•
‘Coffee table’ style hardback
•
284mm x 225mm portrait
•
160 pages
• Full contextual history of the factory, with information on hundreds of designs and
designers, from 1941-2008.
• Over 250 specially commissioned, full colour illustrations, including reproductions of the factory’s unique pattern book archive, original design drawings and hitherto unseen photographs from inside the factory.
•
Special feature boxes including ‘Designer Profile’ and ‘Hallmark Design’.
•
Produced entirely in Great Britain
•
ISBN: 9780955286599
•
Price: £45
plus postage & packing
Images © Mark Hill Publishing Ltd
www.markhill.net