According  to  Posselt  the  demand  for  glass  rods  “was  covered  into  the  60s  by  Josef  Riedel  in
Polaun,  Karl  Riedel  in  Christianstal,  Franz  Breit  in  Schatzlar  and  Unger  in  Tiefenbach.  The
glass  from  the  Company  ofJos.  Riedel  is  better  suited  for  seed  beads,  that  from  Breit  better
for  cut  beads  (softer,  to  cut)”  (Posselt  1907,  p.  12).  Around  1930  six  Companies  (L.  Breit,
Josef  Priebsch,  Ed.  Redlhammer  &  Sons,  Carl  Riedel,  Josef  Riedel,  Leop.  Riedel)  were
members  of  the  Gablonz-Tannwald  Group  (the  “Glass  Industrialists  Business  Association”
and  the  “Glass  Industrialists  Workers  Association”).  The  most  important  sector  of
production  was  glass  canes  and  rods.  The  importance  of  the  raw  glass  which  was  supplied
to  the  cottage  industry  mostly  in  the  form  of  rods  and  canes,  is  described  in  more  detail  in
the  following  advertisement:
“The  main  products  of  the  glasshouses  of  the  area,  rod  and  cane  glass,  is  supplied  in  a  wide  variety
  of  combinations,  widths,  colors  and  types.  The  color  techniques,  especially,  are  so  well  developed
  in  the  glass  houses,  that  they  can  offer  the  cottage  industry  an  almost  infinite  variety  of
the  finest  shades  and  subtleties,  even  in  the  different  combinations  of  colors,  such  as  overlays,
stripes  in  opaque  and  transparent  colors  and  in  the  purest  crystal”  (Lodgmann-Stein  1930,
p.  378).
But  other  Companies  also  supplied  the  industry.  The  composition  glasshouse  of  Heinrich
F.  Hübner  in  Gablonz  recommended:  “Composition  glass  canes  and  rods  in  crystal,  pink,
ruby  and  diverse  transparent  and  opaque  colors,  mother-of-pearl  and  mother-of-pearl
agates,  ‘saferin’  ”(Lodgman-Stein  1930,  p.  414).  A  speciality  were  the  bracelets  made  of
glass  tubes,  “bangles,”  whose  incredible  sales  to  India  are  reported  in  Contemporary  texts.
They  were  mostly  made  from  cylinders  (“Nappeln”)  with  basic  patterns  already  in  the  walls
that  only  had  to  be  sectioned  off  and  processed.  Without  doubt,  the  invention  of  the  winding
ring  by  the  Weiskopf  Company  in  Morchenstern  contributed  a  great  deal  to  a  rational
production:
“In  1903,  the  Company  of  Dr.  Weiskopf  registered  a  new  article,  the  so-called  ‘winding  ring’  for  a
patent...  The  glass  rod,  at  the  same  time  it  is  being  heated,  is  wound  in  a  spiral  on  to  a  turning
ring  with  the  size  and  shape  needed  for  the  glass  rings  being  produced;  from  the  glass  cane  that
is  thus  produced,  the  individual  spiral-shaped  windings  are  broken  off  and  are  reheated  so  they
can  be  evened  up,  at  the  same  time  the  inferior  decoration  and  the  closing  of  the  ring  thus  produced ­
  also  takes  place  ...In  the  production  of  these  patented  rings,  the  Weiskopf  Company  limited ­
  itself  mostly  to  hollowgold  lined  bracelets  which  became  a  very  special  article...  In  1913  the
Company  found  that  it  was  necessary  to  issue  a  warning  against  imitations  of  these  patented
rings.  Attempts  had  already  been  made  in  1912/13  to  imitate  the  wound-ring  in  the  bangles  industry ­
  and  after  the  patent  ran  out,  it  became  an  incredible  mass  article  which  contributed  greatly
to  the  upswing  in  the  Indian  ring  business...”  (Meissner  1954,  pp.  30,  31).
Various  stages  in  the  production  of  these  “wound  rings”  can  be  demonstrated  by  several
examples  (ills.  62,  63,  p.  116);  the  bracelets  of  the  Biedermeier  period  (ill.  64,  p.  117)  are
compared  with  the  bangles  of  the  turn  of  the  Century  (ill.  65,  p.  117).
OVERLAYS,  STRIPES,  NETWORK  AND  FILIGREE  GLASS
Many  of  the  hollow  glass  techniques  (overlay,  applied  colored  stripes,  network  and  filigree
glass,  millefiori  technique)  were  also  used  for  making  beads.
OVERLAY
Two  or  more  layers  of  color  glass  on  top  of  each  other  made  certain  shades  of  color
possible  or  enhanced  the  intensity  of  the  exterior  layer.  The  inner  layer  of  glass  was  -  even
in  the  perfect  bead  -  often  not  visible,  but  its  effect  was  present  nonetheless,  since  the
usually  lighter-colored  core  enhanced  the  brilliance  of  the  outer  layer.  The  thicker  a  layer  of
glass  was,  the  darker  it  appeared  to  be.  This  phenomenon  could  be  counteracted  by  using  a
lighter  core  (ill.  137,  p.  194).  Cross-sections  of  rods  or  canes  provide  a  view  of  the
succession  of  layers:  over  the  light  blue  lies  a  darker  blue,  sometimes  clearly  separated,

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