The current state is the result of a long development of the continual collecting of experiences and knowledge, the development and evaluation of observations, i.e. of the continuous work of several generations of glass experts, glass-works and lastly of creators.

The glass pressing technology had already been developed by improvement in 18th century Europe, with the industrial use of small mechanization devices (e.g. with the production of the handles of drinking glasses) which had been developed toward the end of the 1820’s in the USA. Also as the pressing methods were introduced to Bohemia, following American and French models, Bohemia did not particularly concern itself as yet with the principles of the new technology.

For the local glassworks, that massive rise of production, which the pressing technique brought with it, as practiced in the modern equipped, economically organized new factories in the USA, in England, France and Belgium, was dangerous. The small Bohemian glassworks, which were equipped with outdated machinery, and whose strength and advantage lay in cheap high-quality manual work, were not able to make radical investments, which delayed the development of pressed glass. The relationship of the Bohemian glass industry with pressed glass was predominantly passive in the first phase, which lasted approximately from the middle of the 1830s to the mid-1860s. The aim consisted in gaining cheap semi-manufactures for the further refinement by cutting. The glasswork in Adolfov bei Vimperk was first in Bohemia that had taken up, in 1836, the production of pressed glass "in the French manner ". The few available pressed glasses, refined by ribbons which tried to copy Bohemian Biedermeier glasses, do not as a rule, show that with this procedure, the expected results were reached. Amongst those first products of Bohemian pressed glass, also belong items with which the pressed technique was combined with that of the glass-blowers. For all these works the rich refining with ribbons, engraving, coloured stains, gilding and matting is characteristic.

Recently in the vicinity of the disused glasswork in Jiřikovo Údoli in south Bohemia, (archaeological) research works have supplied a more exact basis for the determination of the origin of a range of products which were pressed in French and American forms. One finds plates, bowls, candle-sticks, salt cellars which are covered with relief decoration in the form of tendrils or Gothic patterns on granulated backgrounds. These items are throughout, more thick-walled, and in the moulding of the form, a little larger than the foreign examples, because the hard Bohemian frit is less suitable for the pressing process.

In North Bohemia, where since the 18th century the production of pressed beads, buttons, chandeliers etc. was common already, the press process also became extended to such items as small bowls, salt cellars, candlesticks, paper weights, different stands, busts and sculptures. It seems that the initiative spread from the Harrachov glassworks in Nový Svět which had taken up this assortment of goods already in 1833 in their production. Their example was followed by the glassworks of the Reidel family. Also these products did not distinguish themselves by their originality; the figurative works were mostly only copies of porcelain sculptures or bronze figures. This branch of glass bijouterie which was maintained until 20th century, formed the true product base of the North Bohemian glassworks, and was proof that they could turn out successful export articles.

As the discussion is about early pressed glass, then the related technology of blow-mould pressing may not remain unmentioned. It was introduced together with the pressing technique to the production of closed forms. Out of this technology came bottles, pharmacist's glass and flasks, as well as producing cheap decorative and drinking glass, with rich ornamentation. These jugs, decanters, glasses, candlesticks, frequently workshop-produced, belonged to the cheapest glass goods.

It is characteristic of the whole early phase of pressed glass, that the pressing technique was intended for the imitation of more expensive techniques, or other materials, for the production of cheap ornamental items for the poorer urban and rural population. The real advantages of this new production technology - cheapness, standardisation and the technological divergent production possibilities - was already extensively used at this time in Bohemia, just as similarly abroad.

From 1865 to approximately 1920 pressed glass in larger quantities also begins to have a wider social function than to fulfil the need for cheap utility glass for the daily use. There appeared forms and ornament types of our tradition and also the character of the hard Bohemian frit corresponded. The deliverers of this development were glass factories which appeared, often from the fusion of several enterprises, in which financially powerful entrepreneurs had introduced different technical improvements (e.g., coal firing, new machinery, the use of purer and cheaper raw materials). The leading role was undertaken by the companies of Stölzle in South Bohemia, Inwald in Prague, and later in North Bohemia, Riedel in Isergegebirge - Jizerske Hory, Reich and Schreiber in Moravia and in the glassworks of Zahn and Kuchynka in Slovakia, where pressed glass was also produced. Toward the end of the century a range of drinking glass sets and individual container types was already produced here (e.g. half litre glasses for beer and tea), which exhibit numerous variants in the form and decoration. The decorations were simply derived from the usual cut and engraved patterns. The delightful decoration from sculpted lenses, small beads and granulations was extremely common. At the same time, a rich style of copying ornamental art was maintained. Around the turn of the century naturalistic motifs e.g. simplified flowers and fruit arose, of which the Jugendstil is reminiscent. Among these products one already finds a high percentage in the form of balanced and functional, technically well implemented containers with pleasantly durable raised decoration, which for the Bohemian frit was suitable.

At the beginning of the 20th century the range, significance and quality of pressed glass production continued to increase, particularly within the field of technical glass and building glass. Also the production of small utility and decorative glass did not lag behind, although in most enterprises where pressed glass was still produced, it was usually as a substitute for polished lead crystal.

The first successful efforts not to treat pressed glass simply as a cheap substitute, are to be attributed to the company Inwald. There appeared in the twenties, first of all, however also in the thirties, designs which distinguish themselves by their simplicity, purity of style, functional talent, imaginative and restrained application of a pure pressed decoration. These were items by Rudolf Schrötter, who designed sets and vases, their form determined with an emphasis on functionality, and which belong to the innovative achievements in the area of modern Czechoslovak glass design. After one hundred years - i.e. to a moment when the (manual) pressing process was already no longer the most productive method, and as semi-automatic manufacturing of drinking glass sets was approaching, that at last, pressed glass stops being a copy, and begins to become an adequate and important article in the range of the cheap utility glass.

The Inwald glass of the thirties is simultaneously an interlude and a preparation for the development of pressed glass in the years 1950 to this day. As well as our glass industry had recovered from the war damage, so began the systematic work. In the field of pressed glass an almost exemplary co-operation began to unfold, between the manufacturer's enterprises, the development institutions and designers. Furthermore the pressed glass production glassworks with tradition and experience also devoted themselves. They united in the Sklo Union. At the top in terms of significance of the enterprises is Rudolfova hut’ the former Inwald at Dubi Teplice in Bohemia followed by Hermanova hut’ near Plzen. The high-volume glass is produced in Libochovice and Rosice. The production of so-called Kristallerie is concentrated in the glasswork enterprise Jablonecké Sklárny.

Around 1955, Bohemia VEB in Poděbrady began the successful production of pressed lead glass.

For the last stage co-operation with a circle of approximately twenty designers, graduates of the Prague Academy of Industrial and Applied Arts, in the studio of Prof K Štipl, from whom (and later from V. Plátek), they have received a thorough, theoretical and practical training. They concern themselves completely with the possibilities of the pressing methods and its obvious peculiarities in formal functional-social respects, and, only now, after this technology is more than a hundred years old in Bohemia.

Furthermore the design centre for the glass industry organization had an positive effect, in 1952, when the celebrated expert K Peroutka was appointed director, through whose initiative at that time, several very progressive designs went immediately into production. In close connection with the improvement of the pressing process, were found (technical  -T) solutions that were several years ahead of their time. This applies, for example, to a drawing of the designer Josef Soukup which replaces the surface decoration with a structure which facilitated the flow of the frit in the compression mould existing from metal, or from the work of František Zemek. His designs are distinctly plastic, whose construction was based on the contrast between the form of the press-mould and that of the inside core.

But such works remained for the time being exceptions. From 1950 to 1960 the principal purpose was to develop a selection of simple contemporary decoration and appropriate forms for containers and articles which should develop from the specifics of the pressing technique. Such results have been achieved in particular by Miloš Filip, Vaclav Hanuš, František Pečeny, Jiří Zejmon, Rudolf Jurnikl, and the free co-workers (free-lance designers  -T) such as Jitka Forejtová, Jiří Žoužela, Ladislav Kozák and Jan Schmid. In 1959 the board of design advisors recommended to the company to take a considerable number of out-dated products from production. So a broad basis could be created by standard products, which corresponded to the developed aesthetic requirements and the new social needs.

These were a factor in the fastidious shaping of the range of Czechoslovakian pressed glass. This tendency was favoured by the fact that the fully automatic production of drinking glass in the world registered impressive results, in addition to the delightful manually- produced Czechoslovakian pressed glass which functioned with its relatively smaller production levels.

Lastingly, František Vizner, (although only in passing), Ladislav Oliva and Vladislav Urban were involved in this development. In the sixties one of our prominent glass designers of the middle generation, Adolf Matura, began to engage with the problems of pressed glass and also to rapidly prove himself in this area as a relevant personality. In recent time still other names being added are Jiři Brabec, Jiri Repásek, Vratislav Šotola and that of the young Pavel Pánek.

The (designer’s – T) creative interest is prioritised in the construction of the glass form. Regardless of whether it is a vase, dish, ashtray or a candlestick, the form acquires plastic values. These are based on the balanced harmony and/ or contrast between the external surface and the internal cavity which, the specific technology of the glass pressings brings to full effect, by means of a complex divided (not rotated) form. The behaviour of the distributed frit makes an essential contribution to the fullness of the transparency and the fascinating refractions of light within the pressed glass objects. It is important that neither the decorative nor the functional aspects are underestimated.

Also the function of the surface decoration is seen anew. The plastic surface of the products is accordingly arranged in its rhythm and the structure of the form. A similar function, if taken a little bit in a different manner, is the unity of form and surface which can be achieved by the surface structures which limit the form in a natural way and can stress, or even have a form-constituting importance. As everyone knows, structures are not solely an interesting feature of Czechoslovakian pressed glass. But attention is rewarded, for example in the designs of Vizner, Oliva or Urban where discipline and fantasy are balanced or co-ordinated. They testify to the great capabilities of these designers and serve to illustrate the possibilities which pressed glass offers.

Finally, during the last years, our designers follow attentively the development of the metal press moulds, and the activity of the engravers, and the new procedures, by which the actively treated surface of the plaster model, can be transferred directly into the metal. Here begin fertile experiments in the co-operation between the creators and artisans to prepare the forms. Also in this respect important results have already been achieved which have been able to free pressed glass from its stereotypical characteristics and to give the specific features of a manually created item to it.

As one sees, the problems and the possibilities of pressed glass with its 130-year history on the region of Czechoslovakia are not yet exhausted. We await with confidence the next development.

Translation © Marcus Newhall 2006