Beads
A Brief History of Pressed Glass Beads
This post was originally published in May 2023 and was updated and republished in Sept. 2024.
The Invention of Pressmolding in Bohemia
Bohemian artisans invented the use of iron tongs to create shapes out of heated glass canes in the 18th century. It is said that the discovery of this “pressmolding” technique was a “happy accident” by a bead maker when he: “dropped the metal bar or wire he wound beads with into the glass mass and when he fished it out with tongs, he noticed that the glass that adhered to them took on its shape.” (Die Perle, 1927, vol. 4, no. 7, p. 52, translated and compiled by Anita von Kahler Gumpert and Karlis Karklins). According to Sibylle Jargstorf, these early glass pressing molds arose with the aim to compete with the French in the chandelier crystal drop industry (Jargstorf, S. (1993), Baubles, Buttons and Beads: The Heritage of Bohemia, Atglen, PA: Schiffer Publishing Ltd, p. 49). Regardless of how exactly the glass press molds came about, skilled makers began using the molds for decorative glass buttons and then beads. By the early nineteenth century, machines replaced tongs to produce pressed glass on a larger scale.
New Decorative Elements Introduced to Pressed Glass Beads
The discovery of the pressed glass technique led to fanciful shapes and designs although round ones are also made in this way. Each tong had a specific shape to accommodate different designs. Artisans worked in small groups around a furnace. Besides flowers, animals became popular, as well as many geometric shapes. By the 1840s glass makers were adding decorative color accents to some of these beads to highlight the impressions made by the molds (Jargstorf, S. (1993), p. 52). Glass makers innovated with the molds to create new styles, meeting the demand of 19th century fashion for buttons of all sorts, and later beads, cabochons, and cameos.
Jablonec nad Nisou: A Regional Center for Beads
The current city of Jablonec nad Nisou (Czech Republic) has gone through a variety of name changes but one thing that remains unchanged is its reputation as a regional center for glass beads since the 16th century (Kaspers, F. (2014), Beads From Jablonec: A History in Beads, Amsterdam: Marblings Publishing, p. 13). Evidence of glass making in the region dates to the 13th century. Ethnic Germans arrived in the region in the 16th century, coinciding with the growth of the glass making industry. So many ethnic Germans settled in the area that the city name reflected the changing population and became known by the German word Gablonz. From the 1870s through the 1920s, the glass bead industry flourished in this region, exporting beads to Europe and America. During World War II, the area was annexed by Nazi Germany, leading to the annihilation of the Jewish population and the expulsion of the ethnic Germans to Germany after the war. The beadmakers among them settled in Bavaria in a town they called Neu Gablonz, where they continued to produce beads. However, they lost many of their original molds and never reached the pre war level of production.
A New Era for the Pressed Glass Bead Makers
As a cottage industry, most of these beads were produced in small batches with workshops attached to homes. The end of the 19th century saw a change to more machines, larger workshops, and small factories. In the mid 1950s, the communist government of Czechoslovakia revived the industry following the disastrous years of war. Jablonex became the state monopoly that oversaw bead production (P. Nový, “The Story of Jablonec Costume Jewelry,” Journal of Glass Studies, 2022, vol. 64., p. 208) Jablonex still produces pressed glass beads, but the fall of Communism also saw the rise of small bead enterprises in the area. Old molds were rediscovered and dusted off. Today it is possible to find reproduction beads from the past, as well as beautiful new shapes and colors.