252 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1 9 13 



Blue and white, red and white, and red, white and green Bohemian glass 



ash to aid her in the work? succeeded his brother Maur- 



Glass works of rude char- ice, Prince of Orange in 



acter were built in and 1625, and who died in 1647. 



around the mountains, which On this vase was a German 



were covered with trees, inscription. A goblet at the 



The artists of the local same museum has engraved 



Blue and white medallion glass towns, around about the cen- on it a hunting scene, the in- Enameled Bohemian glass 



ter, carried their glass to the mountain retreats to be fired, scription is in Dutch and it bears the date figures of 1664. 



Wonderful pieces of engraved glass and pieces painted in Harking back to Bohemian glass as an industry one finds 



enamel coloring were carefully and pat- 

 iently worked out in the upper villages 

 where water power was abundant. 



Into the world of glass came Casper 

 Lehnman, a Bohemian who had redis- 

 covered the art of glass cutting, and by 

 a hitherto unknown method of engrav- 

 ing, opened up a new field for decorative 

 art in glass. He transmitted his secret 

 to one of his pupils, George Schwan- 

 hard, who continued the work, making 

 great improvements in the methods of 

 his master, until all Europe went mad 

 over this wonderful engraved glass, and 

 nothing else would sell. It was then 

 that Bohemian engravers, through a 

 scarcity of material, or possibly with a 

 desire to fill a special order of some 

 wealthy patron, went so far as to place 

 their engraving on Venetian vases which 



that it reached the height of its popular- 

 ity about the middle of the eighteenth 

 century. It was at that time the leading 

 industry, not only in Bohemia but in 

 Silesia as well. At that period enormous 

 quantities of glass were manufactured, 

 and they met with ready sales. 



The shape of the pieces was unique, 

 for each one was specially designed by 

 the workmen at Bohemia. Their de- 

 signs were not, however, always consid- 

 ered by critics as effective. They con- 

 sisted, generally, of a series of lines, 

 each one of which was placed near each 

 other, seemingly to see how much could 

 be done in a limited space. 



The ideas of formation were extens- 

 ively copied by the French, who took up 

 this line of industry, but their designs 

 were changed into interlocking flowers, 



Bohemian glass decanter 

 were already a century old. This served to confuse matters which often showed exquisite taste, 

 so badly that it is often a hard task to determine the real As a people, the Bohemians were poor, and slow to amass 



from the etching on old glass. wa^^^^^^^^^^^^mk S reat wealth. The money was loaned by the 



Visiting the Musee-de-Cluny to-day, one will nobility, who controlled the works. They were 



find a wonderful piece of glass with a high so poor, in fact, that they had scarcely the bare 



stem, on which is engraved a full-length por- necessities of life, receiving deplorable wages, 



trait of the Prince Frederick of Nassau, who so small that it seemed an impossibility to live 



Red and white tumblers, "grape vine" pattern goblet and white decanter and tumbler of Bohemian glass 



