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 var- 
iety of combinations, widths, colors and types. The color techniques, especially, are so well de- 
veloped 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 pro 
duced also takes place ...In the production of these patented rings, the Weiskopf Company lim 
ited 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 in 
dustry 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, 
149