Ill 



As one might have expected, they are 

 from Bohemia, a country which has long 

 been celebrated for the rare excellence and 

 high artistic merit of its glass work. Su- 

 perior skill in this pursuit is hereditary in 

 the family of the Blaschkas. They lived 

 in Venice when its far-famed glass-making 

 was a national art, and all who practised it 

 were held, so it is generally claimed, to be- 

 long to the nobility. At the beginning of 

 the seventeenth century they removed from 

 Venice to Bohemia, into which country, ac- 

 cording to their account, they introduced 

 the artistic manufacture of glass. They 

 possessed certain technical secrets, some 

 of which, such as the use of color, the prep- 

 aration of the more fusible kinds of glass, 

 and a peculiar method of annealing, are 

 still utilized in their work. 



One of the more noted of their number 

 was Joseph Blaschka, a skilful artificer in 

 gold and silver and glass, and Leopold 

 Blaschka was his son. Born on May 27, 

 1822, at Aicha, a village of northern Bo- 

 hemia, situated about twenty miles from 



