Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1877-12-12
Bohemian Glass.-where and How it is
Made.

Bohemian glass differs greatly from
all other kinds, both ancient and mod
ern, in its manufacture and general ap-
pearance. The Venetian glass, which
reached its highest level of artistic ex-
cellence and commercial supremacy in
the fifteenth century, was essentially
light and graceful in form and decora-
ton; the German glass that appeared
in the sixteenth century, was very dlf-
ferent, being rather heavy in form and
dull in color, and almost always paint
ed in enamel with portraits, heIaldic
designs. coats-of-arms, etc., whence it
is sometimes known as Baronial glass.
Glass of much finer quality and
clearer color than the German or Nene-
tian was made in Bohemia in the six
teenth century, and in 1909 the art of
engraving on glass, until then unknown
was invented by Casper Lehman, and
did much to spread the taste for the new
glassware, which rapidly became very
popular. The industry has steadily in
creased in importance to the present
day. and shows every sign of long fu-
ture of commercial and artistic activity.
Bohemia seems fitted by nature for
glass producing country. Its rugged
hills are covered with heavy pine for
ests that furnish the glass manufacture
er with the fuel for the furnaces and
the potash, which is an essential ingre-
dent of this glass. The other materials.
quartz and lime, are found in great
plenty in close proximity to the factor
les. The forests are owned by mobiles,
who have no way of using up the wood
but in glass-making, and therefore give
every encouragement to the industry,
often building the .glass-factories and
renting them out to small manufactur-
ers, supplying them wood at a fixed
rate. These buildings are very poorly
constructed. but are generally roman
tically situated in this hilly, woody
country. When all the wood in the
neighborhood has been used up, they
are removed to the centre of some dense
forest, there to remain till that, too, is
exhausted. The pieces made in these
rude factories are often transported to
finishing shops in the villages, where
the engraving, enameling, painting,
and gliding is added.
Besides the nominal cost of the mate
rials for glass-msking, the Bohemian
manufacturers possess great advan-
tage in the low wages paid to the work
men. which are only about one-fourth
| what is paid i'm other countries. NJ. Pell-
rot estimates the wages paid in Bohe-
mia at from one-third to one-fourth
that of the French workman, but adds,
"this. however, does not speak much
for the wealth of the proprietor, the
profits of the manufacturer, and espe-
ciallv for the general well-being of the
working classes of that country"
With these natural advantages, aided
bv a long experience and the research
es of skiIful chemists who are constant
Iy experimenting in the interests OF the
factories. it is no wonder that they
stand confessedly at the head of glass
making countries. Mr.. Peligot, the
best French authority on the subject,
saws: s.The Bohemians excel in glass
Ieolored in the body; most of the colors
used in France were discovered by
them; the price of their colored glass
;s often no more than that of their white
glass. They also excel in glass engrav-
ING. and almost all the good engravers
in France come from Bohemia.
Glass engraving originated In Bone
mia and has never been brought else