Bohemian Glass Collection

Bohemian Glass hand crafted, individually designed bohemian glass art and functional glass products to galleries in the UK and to select retailers.

Popular Czech Bohemian lead crystal dates back to the Renaissance, when abundant natural crystal was discovered throughout the Czech Republic. Hand-cut glassware—from delicate champagne flutes to intricate Christmas bowls—can be found in elegant Prague shops however not in the Old Town's, where you may find rather cheap looking China and Bulgaria imports over-priced for the tourist attention, however you can still find quality well-known Moser Glass or fine production of Bohemian Glassworks.

The hand-blown ornaments and figurines featuring symbolic stars and moons, swans, owls, and birds are typical imported trash for fooling the tourists, but genuine Bohemian glassware and crystal ware is typically decorated by the means of various intricate and demanding techniques. It is mostly hand-cut, hand-painted, rhinestone decorated, gold-plated or wheel engraved, it is not unusual to encounter combinations of these techniques. It takes 4 years of study to become a glass painter and a lot of years to gain enough skills for ultimate perfection.

Bohemia was a part of the former Czechoslovakia, now known as the Czech Republic, and was famous for its beautiful and colourful glass. The history of Bohemian glass started with the abundant natural resources found in the countryside. Bohemian glassworkers discovered potash combined with chalk created a clear colourless glass that was more stable than glass from Italy. It was at that time when the term Bohemian crystal emerged for the first time in history to distinguish its qualities from the glass coming from other places. As opposed to usual perception this was non-lead. This Czech glass could be cut with a wheel. In addition, resources such as wood for firing the kilns and for burning down to ashes were used to create potash.

There were also copious amounts of limestone and silica. Bohemia turned out expert craftsmen who expertly worked with crystal. Bohemian crystal became famous for its excellent cut and engraving. They became skilled teachers of glassmaking in neighbouring and distant countries. By the middle of the 19th century, a technical glass making school system was created that encouraged traditional and innovative techniques as well as technical preparation.

In the second half of the 19th century, Bohemia looked to the export trade and mass-produced coloured glass for shipment all over the world. Pairs of vases were produced either in a single colour of opaque glass or in two-colour cased glass. These were decorated in thickly enamelled flower subjects that were painted with great speed. Others were decorated with coloured lithographic prints copying famous paintings. These glass objects were made in huge quantities in large factories and were available by mail order throughout Europe and America. They were not fine art but provided inexpensive decorative objects to brighten up ordinary homes Reverse - glass painting was also a specialty of the Czechs. The image is carefully painted by hand on the back of a pane of glass, using a variety of techniques and materials, after which the painting is mounted in a bevelled wooden frame. Glass artisanship remained at a high level even under the Communists because it was considered ideologically innocuous.

Although craftsmen retained their talent, not all the glassmakers still possess a sense of how to make designs new and exciting, and these are still very successful exporting to markets abroad, while others are passing out of general knowledge In the modern 21st century.