PREFACE 
“Full of good cheer, his meager rucksack holding a number of hard 
earned coins saved from his wages as a journeyman, a young man 
walked into Vienna arount 1818 with the intention and with the convic- 
tion of being able to make his 'fortune' here.” 
This is how Ludwig Lobmeyr (1829 -1917) begins his autobiography, 
which has been preserved in manuscript form by the Company. The 
Viennese glass industrialist, for whom glass was “more beautifui than 
rock crystal,” was encouraged to write down this record towards the 
end of the 19th Century by his friend Friedrich Recht. In it he teils 
about the life of his father Josef Lobmeyr, the opening of a glass busi- 
ness, his own childhood and youth and above all about the fate of the 
famous Company, J. & L. Lobmeyr, in the second half of the 19th Cen 
tury. 
It also takes up the difficulties with the Slavonic glass works and the 
resulting prolonged court case against his Hungarian partner Hondl. 
Travels take up a lot of space, many made in connection with visiting 
and taking part in exhibitions. Lobmeyr describes in detail the close 
contacts with the Austrian Museum for Art and Industry (founded in 
1864), its director Rudolf von Eitelberger and the leading Viennese 
artists. Important Personalities in Vienna’s cuitural life gathered for 
“social evenings” at the Lobmeyr's. And Lobmeyr also deals with per 
sona! situations; his relationships with women and friends and his 
numerous visits to health spas. He also mentions his picture Collec 
tion and his acquaintance with famous painters of the time, among 
them, Alt, Pettenkofen, Spitzweg and Munkäczy. 
This publication contains the transcription of this document written in 
a foreign hand, in its full length even though readers might consider 
some passages tedious and dispensable. It seemed to me inad- 
visable to alter this total view Ludwig Lobmeyr presented of his life 
and work by making arbitrary changes. The wonderfu! task feil to me 
to accompany this journey through more than a half Century with illus- 
trations taken from the rieh treasures in the company’s museum and 
the archives of the J. & L. Lobmeyr Company in Vienna. In addition to 
glass objects, working drawings and paper patterns there are also 
Contemporary photographs reproduced here. They give us the 
unique possibility to see entire drinking and dessert Services and also 
extensive glass series. 
I see the time when Josef Lobmeyr led the Company (from 1823 until 
his death in 1855) as a very important phase. Ludwig Lobmeyr de 
scribes this period which he knew from stories told to him and from his 
own experiences. It also appears to me to be so important because 
the drawings in the Company archives from this time spread out a pa- 
norama of Biedermeier glass before us unlike anything ever seen be 
töre. 
Josef Lobmeyr was a widely traveled and capable businessman. 
Without doubt, he was one of the people who knew the Contemporary 
glass industry best and was able to show his public an extensive se- 
lection of glasses very soon, as the two surviving business cards from 
the early period prove. 
Orders based on samples that took the form of existing glasses or pa 
per patterns, chiefly went to the centers of the Bohemian glass indus 
try. In the beginning Lobmeyr was dependent on what they had to öf 
ter, but he probably developed his own ideas at a very early stage. 
They led to a remarkable seiection that included all the successful 
glasses whatever their origins. The extensiveness of this seiection 
demanded a well thought-out System of Classification for the various 
types of shapes and Services. Faced with the long, narrow folders of 
drawings and patterns for drinking glasses and dessert Services and 
the types of shapes of various glasses, we discover a previously un- 
suspected variety which makes it possible - in many respects - to 
gain a new view of Biedermeier glass. 
Included in this are the production drawings of previously unknown 
dessert Services, dated with the year 1835 and signed by Josef Lob 
meyr. Another important find is made up of production drawings by 
J. C. Bauer. They have survived partially in the form of paper patterns, 
and partially as fragmented drawings on the backs of paper patterns 
that were re-used and cut up for new purposes. The drinking and des 
sert Services from the time of Josef Lobmeyr are exceptionally valua- 
ble for scholarly research. A series of letters and numbers label the 
Services for identification. After his death these were encorporated 
into a new System of numbering, Düring this process many of the 
older Services were naturally disregarded. This resulted in the erro- 
neous opinion that the (more recent) numbering was complete and in 
cluded all the Services made by the Lobmeyr Company during that 
time. 
The autobiography itself is introduced by a commentary by Friedrich 
Pecht, who contributes greatly to defining Ludwig Lobmeyr's person- 
ality. If it appears that the volume of pictures illustrating the Contem 
porary Lobmeyr text is very extensive, one must keep in mind that this 
is still only a small area in the overall production of “Lobmeyr Glass.” 
The company’s 175th anniversary was celebrated in 1998 in Vienna 
as the “Lobmeyr Year” with numerous activities: changing exhibitions 
in the company’s own museum were devoted to specific themes (Cus 
tomers of the Lobmeyr Company, wine glasses, mirrored designs and 
production). In a jubilee publication of its own (“Lobmeyr 1823 - 
Bright Glass, Ciear Light”) members of the Rath family in 1998 por- 
trayed the Company history of the House of Lobmeyr, expanding on 
the Lobmeyr monograph by Robert Schmidt which appeared in 1925. 
It brings the story up to the present and also includes the production 
of chandeliers. 
The Austrian Postal Savings Bank devoted its 1998 summer exhi- 
bition to the Lobmeyr theme, “Surpassing the Beauty of Rock Cristal” 
for which I undertook the scholarly supervision. This publication is 
also to be regarded as being connected with this exhibition. At pre 
sent the project, “J. & L. Lobmeyr, Glasses and Production Drawings” 
is being carried out with the Support of the Austrian Science Fund, 
Vienna (project director: Waltraud Neuwirth, scientific research: Ul 
rike Scholda). This is enabling the objects owned by the Austrian Mu 
seum for Applied Arts to be researched and a comprehensive Lob 
meyr bibliography to be produced. 
As with all my projects, I woüld like to.express my wärmest thanks to 
all the many people and institutions who have helped and supported 
me: 
- Harald, Peter und Stefan Rath, along with all the other members of 
the Rath family and all the participating members of the J. & L. Lob 
meyr Company 
- Monika Wenzl-Bachmayer (Austrian Postal Savings Bank) and her 
staff 
- Olga Kronsteiner for her meticulous work compiling the index 
- Fritz Kaltenbrunner for yet another of his remarkably exact jobs of 
proof reading 
- Bernhard A. Böhler for his excellent work 
- Joschko A. Buxbaum and Alfons Pessl for their enormous efforts 
-Ann Dubsky whose many years of working with the subject of glass 
guaranteed excellent quality in the translation into English 
- Ulrike Scholda for numerous valuable pointers 
- Vera Varga (Kunstgewerbemuseum Budapest) 
- Walter Haschke (Technical Museum Vienna) 
- the library of the Kammer der gewerblichen Wirtschaft, Vienna, and 
its staff 
- the Vienna Municipal and Provincial Archives and their staff 
- and everyone who has stood alongside me with advice and assis- 
tance for so many years. 
Vienna, January 1999 Waltraud Neuwirth 
8