nally, as Fritz Lampl had done, to London. Margarete died in 1958. Josef Berger spent
the last years of his life with the Cellist, Regina Gillinson-Schein. He died on August 22,
1989, in London.
Only very few biographical details about Artur Berger have come down to us (born
1891 in Vienna, died 1981 in Moscow). He was married twice, lived in Moscow and
worked for Mos Film.
TECHNIQUES
The basic materials were semi-finished products, that is, hollow glass tubes and solid
glass rods. The desired object was formed freehand “at the flame” of a gas burner (for-
merly oil-fed lamps were used, hence the terms “lamp-blown glass” or “lamp-work”).
The tiny tubes or rods were brought into the desired shape by heating, turning, pulling,
bending, blowing, melting other parts onto them, etc. Every object made with this pro-
cedure was unique, since no wooden or metal molds were used.
The System of free-forming at the flame naturally resulted in works that had no pontil
marks, scars where the glass was “cracked-off” (in contrast to glasses made with the
help of a glass-blower's pipe). The “Bimini” glasses in the “Venetian Style” clearly differ
from the Venetian glasses of 16th Century in this respect, even though they were sup-
posed to be made exactly like their models.
An old workshop photograph shows “Bimini” glass blowers sitting at long tables
(ill. 64); in front of them are gas burners and glass in all stages of production. There
were innumerable types of glass to choose from, but the “Bimini” Workshops made
their selection with a specific objective in mind. This is also reflected in the abbrevia-
tions which have survived in “Bimini” price lists. They may have been identical to the
terms used by manufacturing Companies:
K = crystal; f = filigree glass; c = Chrysoprase; w = white opal; r = smoky opal; b
= blue; s = assorted colors; a = colored decoration.
In addition, pink, red, white and black were also listed and a lovely topaz color (ill. 39,
p. 40) completed the ränge.
Judging from the degree of transparency, they used both opaque and transparent
glass. Depending on the raw materials and the way the glass was handled, this allowed
them to achieve various degrees of subtlety from transparent to translucid, from
opaque to semi-opaque.
“Bimini’s” Venetian-style glasses corresponded to the filigree glass whose diagonal
threads in a transparent hollow body simulated the effect of a network pattern. Applied
molten threads, ribs and rods (walls, rims and foot-rims), glass drops and tiny prunts
were used for additional enhancement.
Naturally, tubes and rods were handled with different techniques. Solid glass rods,
mostly used forfigures and figure-animal groups (hunting groups, etc.), almost always
got their shape from pulling. Glass tubes, however, made a large variety of shaping
methods possible. The variously shaped hollow objects were arrived at mostly by
blowing (baluster vases, the bodies of animals), but they were also pulled and shaped
with tools. The production of “Bimini” glasses was a handicraft in the truest sense of
the word. Only very few tools were needed.
Gas burners (hand blowers and table blowers; also the old term, “table lamp” was still
in use) stood on long wooden tables. Roll supports used to rest the long tubes and
rods on, glass shears for cutting, “contractors” for narrowing, “flaring tools” to shape
rims, plyers for a variety of purposes (pincers to flatten the glass), wires for “cracking
off” the glass, callipers for measuring length, compasses (outside callipers) and mea-
suring tapes for calculating dimensions exactly, charcoal, beeswax (to lubricate the
pallets or flaring tools), rods and other tools were needed by the glass blower. The
most important “tools,” however, were his hands. The quality of the finished object de-
pended on the glass blower’s dexterity.
A case containing the tools owned by Karl Bohdal, one of the “Bimini” craftsmen, has
lasted to the present day (ills. 70-72, 75, 76). Carefully preserved, it gives our concep-
tion of the way these glasses came into being a more concrete basis.
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