marketon threads to be used forpassementerie”(Arnold 1909, p. 92). “Up to the beginning 
of the 70s, the molding furnaces were heated exclusively with wood, later with mineral coal, 
in more recent times with oil”(Labau n.d., n.p.). 
While molding with iron tongs over an open wood or coal fire was common, the Mahla 
Brothers Company in Gablonz introduced glass molding with hydrogen into its factory in 
Morchenstern in 1891: 
“This new type of fabrication resulted in a much more perfect method of production, since the 
glass becomes white-hot much quicker because of the intense heat of the hydrogen gas and ap- 
pears much sharper in the pressed design. In this way, a molded wäre is produced that is so 
dose to the cut wäre laymen are hardly able to distinguish between them” (Gablonz 1898, 
p. 161). 
Around the turn-of-the-century Winter reports on molders and the use of double molds 
which were forbidden at times (Winter 1900, p. 16). 
THE MOLDING TECHNIQUE AND ITS TOOLS 
The solid bead molded in two-part molds was made either with or without holes. Articles 
intended for mounting (e.g., earrings, etc.) did not necessarily require Perforation. A tong- 
like tool had always been necessary for pressing or “squeezing,”and in the course of time 
had been improved upon a number of times. In the beginning, it took two people to perforate 
a bead, one for molding, the other for making the hole: 
“The production of hand-pierced beads required 2 people, a molder and a piercer, who sat oppo- 
site each other at the molding furnace. The molder guided the melting end of the glass rod, the 
‘Schmelz’, into the mold and the piercer who had screwed the needle into a hand vice, knew 
exactly how long to wait for the precise moment when the presser pressed the mold together, to 
pierce with the needle at the same time. This Cooperation demanded considerable skill of both 
workers. To make sure the needle pierced in the right place, a so-called ‘snout’ was attached to 
the mold. It is astonishing that it was possible to make up to 20or25 bundles, that is 24,000 to 
30,000 single beads a day in this complicated manner”(Labau n.d., n.p.). 
The mandrel-bead, the so-called “Dörnel” could be made by a single worker, however. 
When glass-pressing tongs with mandrel-bead molds were used, the Perforation did not 
pierce the whole glass bead; the mandrel, a conical brass rod, stuck in the upper part of the 
bead mold. In the lower half there was a corresponding indentation (Glasdrückerei Labau 
n.d.). Both in Vienna (from the Biedermeier Period) and in the Gablonz Museum, mandrel- 
beads have been preserved which still show the conical mandrel before being cut off 
(ill. 192, p. 244). 
According to Posselt, one person took care of molding the round molded beads; for the 
laurel berries (elongated beads) two people were needed: a molder and a piercer. 
“The molded bead was round and the corners still had to be cut... In the years between 1860- 
1880, many molded beads were made in all kinds of glass and the corners were molded into 
them at the same time; they only needed to be ground over"(Posselt 1907, p. 15). 
The first glass molding works in Labau were built in 1857 by Joachim Wenzel and Josef 
Klinger. Starting in 1868, there were also piercing-molding machines (Labau n.d., n.p.). For 
“molding or squeezing work,” rods of many colors, from 10 to 35 mm. diameter and about a 
meter long, were used along with iron and brass molds (Karmarsch-Heeren 4/1880, p. 52). 
There were two types of “kernel molding machines:’’top piercers and side piercers (Parkert 
1925, p. 185). Exchangeable caps (“Kappel”) to insert into the molding tongs made it 
possible to create a great variety of bead shapes. After the molding, the flash (the rim of 
excess glass, “Brockenreif”, that seeps from the sides of the mold) is removed in shaking- 
sacks. Smooth polishing was done in drums with quartz sand or by tumbling. The resulting 
mat beads were polished: either on discs of poplar wood with “Trippei,”or by fire polishing 
(Parkert 1925, p. 188). “Smooth tumbling” without sand, but with water (“water polishing”) 
was also possible (Glasdrückerei Labau, n.d., n.p.). 
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