nA1Pfn fifeF~!I'\T I .' un t' Ii; I·'lt;~~ The journal of the Center for Bead Research Volume 13, Number! Issue 29 2000 ' ~~ ~ARGARETOlO~ ~ The Beads of Bohemia Timeline - Bohemian Beads: Outside Influences, Technology Export and Bead Types Outside Bohemia Within Bohemia Bohemian beads 1359 glasshouse in Vim perk, S. Bohemia 1376 Sklanai'ice (glassmaking village) 1490 Venice making drawn beads 1548 glasshouse at Mseno (Jablonec) 1650 "Roman pearls" in Paris by 1680 red composition by 1680 molded, 1737 glass cutters in Jablonec faceted garnet 1750 lampworking in imitations . Venice 1764174 "mandrel" tong molds 1789 Klaproth 1782 First Czech seed beads discovers uranium 1800 Atlas (satin) 1810 blown glass glass with cut beads in 'Lauscha corners 1815·1866 Bohemia 1820 Anna (uranium) yellow and green 1820 "Vaseline" and Venice united beads;" hexagonal under Austria ~. blues with cut 1840 Prosser corners machine 1841 Altmuller records lampworking 1841 Venetian 1845 blown glass beads in Bohemia rocailles faceted as 1850 silver-lining at charlottes Lauscha ' 18505·1900 beads imitating materials, 1856 irising invented 18561ustering invented objects, exotic in Hungary late 1800s Sample Men gather exotic beads, Venetian 1864 Bapterosses beads to send home for copying beads; beads for makes "Prosser" 1866 outselling Venice the Muslim market beads in France 1876 Multiple mold for blown beads and others 1883 Riedl patents internal grooving for blown beads 1884 tong molds with straight holes 1887 Reidl improves drawing, tumbling of 1897 Well-made seed seed beads; rocia/les beads 1890 Redlhammers making "Prosser 1895 Swarovski to beads" Austria early 1900s snake, 1900? Blown beads interlocking beads made in Japan 1900 Art Nouveau 1941 lampwinding and art beads taught in India: 19205 "Tut" beads 1945 Germans 1945 Beadmaking goes into decline expelled 1970? India making blown beads 1992 Velvet revolution; revival The MARGARETOLOOIST is published twice a year with the most current information on bead research, primarily our own. USA: Members: $30/2 years, Patrons: $8012 years, Supporters: $200/2 years. Foreign: $35, $90, $210. Upper levels receive more privileges. Entire contents © 2000 Peter Francis, Jr. Reproduction forbidden in any form without written permission ISSN 08921 989 Center for Bead Research, 4 Essex St., Lake Placid, NY 12946-1236 Phone (518) 523-1794 E-mail [email protected] W~b site: www.thebeadsite.com ,;' The Margaretologist Vol. 13, No.1 Issue 29 2000 books and with the recent Venetian update. The Czech bead story is tech-driven, with Yes, this issue is late. Due to our hea~y changes often related to the technology of schedule it is the only one published In . .. 2000. Your subscription is for four issues, glass or Its working. This .does not remove not two It will be sted. i the people; they were the mventors, How­ ever, most Bohemian bead artists (unlike 9 The Czech Bead Story (Francis 1979) was many Venetians) worked anonymously. the first book on the history of Bohemian Much' information comes from my exami­ beads. The information was updated in The nation of the collection at the Museum in Glass Trade Beads oj Europe (Francis lablonec in 1978 via the kindness of Vera I 1988). We are due for a new examination. Maternova. I have not included catalogue I , it is a mark of success in bead research numbers here because they have undergone that the stories of the two major European at least one and probably several revisions, I industries [Venice was covered in 11(2) and Thanks are also due to Vladislav Chvalina, 12(1)] need revision every decade. More Vladamir Veseley and Peter Pus of information, new discoveries and new ideas lablonex and Waltraud Neuwirth of Vienna. come to light. This update benefits not only from my further research but also that of <><><><><><> several European scholars. )i;- BEAD EXPO 2001 May 23.27 Miami FL. A note of clarification. Bohemia is a geo­ }i­ Want to take a Bead Tour? Where? graphic term. Once an independent state, it When? We will tailor tours for you and is now in the Czech Republic (and was in small groups. Contact me. Czechoslovakia). It is located on the Bo­ From the Home Page at hemian Plateau. Czech is a cultural and lin­ www.thebeadsite.com click on guistic term referring to a branch of the Galleries (left side) to see the color Slavic language or its speakers, who inhabit plates for Margareta/agist 13(1). Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. Czech is a Q slightly larger term than Bohemian, but the bead industry may be called either, as it is t>. TH,,/,p,m);~i;j~~t~;~~~tym'·<;m:ii·· A::~~i"1 centered in Bohemia with branches in other .WWVI~thebeadsite.com/CAL-PFJR.html Czech-speaking regions. This is true even if , .. \,.;. Send us your email address. individuals were ethnically German if they ..j If the last digits on your mailing label lived in the area. There is no word Czecho. are 13:1, it's time to renew. The region has a Jong, complex history, ..j Notify us of any address changes. bearing wounds of many conflicts involving ..j Each class of membership receives free religious, ethnic and ideological differences. advertising space and Bead Identification Beadmaking grew out ofthe larger industry ..j Certificates or Research Reports. Memberships make wonderful presents. of costume jewelry and "stones" (e.g. rhine­ --J stones) marketed to Europe, America and Encourage your Bead SOCiety, shop or in­ stitution to support bead research groups. elsewhere. It is difficult, maybe impossible, to trace the precise makers of most Czech The Margret Carey "Gotchan Award goes to beads. The center of the industry is Jablo­ the person who spots the most errors per is­ sue. One point for a typo, two for an error of nec nad Nisou (on the Nisou River). fact. The award has been extended to The 1 have taken a somewhat different ap­ Bead Site. proach in this issue to the history of Czech Cindy Schave has won the 2000 Gotcha beadmaking than I had in my two earlier Award for TheBeadSite. Congratulations. 2 o The MargaretoJogist Vol. 13, No. 1 Issue 29 2000 ·The Beads of Bohemi . region for the next severa) centuries. This .G ~ass beadmakmg h~s been identified is an important part of Bohemian glass th m ~outhern BohemIa as early as the history, though I don't find the continuity 8 ~r 7 c~n~ry BC and was prominent as "amazing" as Jargstorf(1993:7) does. durmg Celt1c tImes by the second century (Venclova 1999). These' early develop­ Summary of the Industry's Growth ments, however, seem to have no historic As at Venice, Czech beadmaking was an continuity with what came later. outgrowth of stone cutting (see next sec­ The modern glass industry appeared first tion), but the two followed different tra­ in south Bohemia near the German border. jectories. Venice began making drawn The first known glasshouse was at Vim­ beads in the late 1400s and only around 1750 did lamp-wound beads become im­ perk in ~359 (Weiss 1971 :334). By the early 17 century there were eight glass­ portant. The Czechs began with molded houses there, four of them Betelhutten or . beads in the late ] 600s and did not intro­ "Bead-Houses" (Dillon 1907:292). duce drawn or lamp beads until the 1800s. Our story takes place mostly in north Bohemia. In 1376 taxes were firstlevied Venice and Bohemia had similar , on the Queysser factory in Sklanarice a origins, but took different paths. ' village. named for glassworkers (skla is Czech for "glass"),. some 25 km (16 miles) th from Jablonec (Hejdova 1966; Hette§ By the mid_18 century Czech beads had 1958:6). The ruins of another factory in become very popular. They were inferior that village reveal low, domed furnaces to Venetian ones but sold for half the price . ' lIke those illustrating Sir John Manville's (Morazzoni 1953:40). A leading family Tales, drawn in Bohemia around 1420 was the Riedl (Riedel), who opened their (Hejdova 1966). first glass factory in 1766, were making The 16th century saw explosive growth in beads by 1786 and drawing tubes from , the industry. Jargstorf (1993:5-7) attrib­ 1810 (Urban 1966; n.d. 6-7). uted this to the Wartenbergers rebuilding During the 1800s Czech beads achieved the area after the devastating Husite Wars worldwide fame and actually outsold Ve­ (1419 to 1438). She says they attracted netian ones. Improved productivity, new textile workers and glassmakers, the latter processes and new styles were their hall­ mostly from southern Germany, including marks. Developing glassmaking schools, the Schurer family. global marketing genius and the strength of the Riedl Glass Works (at Polubny, not far It was either a long time after the Husite Wars that the Wartenburgers rebuilt the from Jablonec) all contributed to the evo­ lution of a large, cohesive industry. area or the Schurers and others arrived for th other reasons. Their first glass factory was The 20 century was not so kind. There ohly opened in 1530 at Falknov. They was a downturn during World War I, but built seven more factories during the cen­ after the formation of Czechoslovakia in tury, including one at Mseno, now a Jablo­ 1917 there was a surge in demand and new nec suburb, in 1548 (Censky 1966; Urban glass beadmaking centers emerged outside Jablonec. Then the Great Depression, n.d.:l). A dozen or so families, mostly World War fl, Communist nationalization German, dominated glassmaking in the 3 The Margaretologist Vol. 13, No. 1 Issue 29 2000 and the expulsion of ethnic Germans beat red dyeing agent (Bailey and Bailey the once-flourishing industry down to a 1929:57).