Lawrence democrat. (Lawrenceburg, Tenn.) 1884-1925, 1894-06-08
ARTISTIC GLAsSBLoWlNe.
Flowers and Other Designs Wrought by
Little Colony In New York CITY,

Flowers and Other Designs Wrought by
Little Colony In New York City.
There is settled now upon the edge
Of the German quarter little colony
of artistic and scientific glassblowers
from Thuringia. The colonists say that
they are the first and only persons to
undertake in the United States exactly
such work as they are doing, and, at
any rate, there is no such odd little
workshop as theirs anywhere else in
New York. 1t is made up of tiny
office and showroom, with a street
ward show window, and a somewhat
larger workroom separated from the
office by white hanging that bears
the inscription mo Admittance. Be
hind this screen of white is carried on
the art and mystery of artistic glass
blowing as practiced in far Thuringia.
The head of the colony and proprie-
tor of the business is an intellectual.
looking German, with spectacles, an
agreeable smile, very hollow chest,
and pit to his stomach that suggests
an overworked midriff. His immediate
assistant is a travelled young man,
voluable in several languages, and
this young man is the medium of COM
munication with the English-speaking
world, since the proprietor has no En-
glish of his own. The proprietor and
the voluble you man are the glass
blowers, and their aids are two or
three aproned young girls, who deftly
handle the polished long shafts that
form the raw material of the art, but
do not understand the more delicate
portion of the work. "Of course we
don't teach these girls glassblowing,
says the voluable young man.
The show window of this little fac.
tory displaysa curious variety of works
in glass. There are delicately wrought
vases in many colors, thermometer
tubes, surgical appliances; little
double-bul bed glasses, with water in
the lower bulb and glass fish in the
upper, the whole, when warm hand
is applied to the lower bulb, becoming
fountain in which the fish dance;
comic thermometers that profess to
record the effect upon the human blood
OF love, hate, anger, and other passions;
tiny ornamental shades for electric
lights, and, chief of all, "glas- blumen, "
as the Germans call those oddly
wrought flowers of glass.
The glass flowers are the pride and
speciality of the proprietor. He was
one of the earliest men in Germany to
make them, says his voluble assistant,
and they are really marvellous products
of the glassblowcr's art. There are
roses red, white and yellow, with
soft and pliant-loolling petals, curious.
ly like the genuine rose. There are
sprays of lily of the valley, plant in
which the Germans specially delight,
moss-rose buds, for-get-me-nots, and
all of fifty other flowers that one may
name. The German proprietor is the
designer of the company, but the volu'
BILE young man says airily that often a
skilled glassblower like himself just
seizes upon the inspiration of the mo-
ment as he sits glass in hand over his
gas jet, and works out marvellous
creations without the aid of any visi
bic design. The glassblowers use or
binary illuminating gas, to which they
communicate extra pressure by sim
pie device. They work with astonish
ing rapidity and nicety.-N. Y. Sun.