Latern
Material: Glass beads, wire
Size: 11,5 cm high, 3,5 x 3,5 cm
Age: um 1920
Origin: Gablonz, Czech
Condition:
Very good condition with normal signs of age.
Description:
Antique Gablonz Christmas ornament in the shape of a lantern, dating to around 1920. The delicate structure is composed of silver-coloured glass rods and glass beads threaded onto wire. Dark green ribbed beads add decorative accents. An orange glass sphere forms the centrepiece, symbolising the fire burning inside the lantern. A twisted, silver-coloured glass pendant completes the ornament at the bottom. A collectable example of historic Gablonz glass bead ornament making, featuring an elaborate design. Very good condition. Guaranteed antique – not a reproduction.
History of the production of Gablonz glass bead jewelry
The production of Gablonz glass bead jewelry has a long tradition. The historiography began around 1550 in Gablonz / Sudetenland (today's Czech Republic) and developed in connection with the jewelry and glass industry. At that time, the first glassworks were built and from these, glass grinding shops. In the countless Gablonz family businesses, the beads were blown up from glass tubes in front of an oil lamp with bellows reinforcement, or later with a type of Bunsen burner. This is how the "freehand beads" were blown up by hand without any shaping aids. Later, the glass tubes were blown up into "shaped beads", again in front of the "lamp", using a bead forming machine developed in this region. Father and grandfather were usually responsible for blowing up the beads. Mother and grandmother's busy hands then strung this bead material on wire in certain formations.
