beads in a variety of techniques: “partly hollow, partly solid, press-molded, painted,
striped in all colors (such as pink, opal, ruby, black, garnet, coral red, Atlas, gold,
silver), cut and uncut, round, elongated, tubulär.” Pfeiffer was awarded the “Big
Commemorative Coin” “for the great beauty and inexpensiveness of their glass and
quincaillerie wares and the unusually large size of the factory”. Fischer received the
“Coin of Honor” “for the beauty and low price of his beads, stones and buttons made
from glass” (Munich 1854, Report 1855, p. 47).
At around 1880-1881, the following products from the District of Reichenberg were
listed as glass notions:
1. Glass buttons, glass beads, glass jewelry, glass boxes, glass toys, glass pipe tips (imitation
amber), spun glass, glass wool, etc.
2. Jewelry sets, brooches, earrings, finger rings, medallions, diadems, combs, hairpins, brace-
lets, crosses, scarf pins, necklaces, necklace clasps, cuff links, etc., (made of glass and in
connection with bronze).
3. Glass paper weights for photographs, glass pyramids with thermometers, geometric objects
finely cut of crystal glass for school use.
4. Chandelier hangings, such as: prisms, pendants, points, drip cups, chains, etc., lamp collars,
knife rests, flasks, ink wells, glass door handles, etc.
5. Imitation precious stones in all colors.
6. Black finely cut glass fantasy-stones, discs, buckles, etc., for bijouterie fabrication.
7. Bead embroidery, such as: hanging lamps, wall baskets, bell pulls, flower baskets, etc
(Stehlik 1880, p. 198).
A Statistical overview of “the actual glass quincaillerie-fabrication” in the Gablonz and
Tannwald districts is provided by Gerner:
Altogether, a total of 9 glasshouses existed in 1870 for rods, prisms and small rods. These works
had command of 13 glass furnaces with 79 larger and smaller pots, and also 12 stamping works.
The number of workers employed was 336. There was only one additional glasshouse in Lower
Austria that produced glass rods, amounting to 8 ctr. [ed: 1 centner = 50 kilograms].
There were 58 glass composition works. They employed 264 workers.
The production as raw glass rods, prisms, press-molded and composition glass amounted to
60,438 ctr., worth fl. 907,000. Glass press-molding houses, that is, works where the drawn raw
glass rods are press-molded white in a soft state, to be sent on to cutters, gilders, etc., were 160
in number and employed 1,032 workers.
268 cutting works, which used water power for the most part, were counted. The number of
treddle tools (cutting benches that are put into motion with the worker’s foot) approached 1800.
In these cutting works, some 2,859 men, 975 women and 140 children, a total of 3,974 workers,
were employed.
There were 76 spinning factories in action, employing altogether 1,021 workers, in which the
solid or hollow raw glass was worked in front of a lamp with the help of a soldering tube. There
were 87 bead blowing works, with 610 workers, in which hollow beads were blown in the same
manner, then cut, painted, plated with genuine and imitation gold and silver. Besides, there were
another 172 “Gürtler” workshops with 1234 workers which were put to use by the glass quincail
lerie industry [ Gürtler 1 = literally, a belt-maker, here however one who works with non-precious
metals, especially in the bijouterie industry in the Gablonz area], The value of the entire glass
quincaillerie production amounted to at last 2 million florins.
An additional 31 businesses in Lower Austria should also be listed here which made glass and
wax beads to a value of 87,000 florins with 42 workers.
Also worth mentioning is the production of various types of glass beads which is done in Pribram
in Bohemia by an establishment which employs mostly female workers and out of about 30 ctr. of
Parisian galvanized iron wire, and 70 ctr. glass beads, formerly their own products, now of Vene-
tian provenance, and 3 ctr. of sheet zink into 5,000 grave wreaths, flowers, etc., mostly forsale to
France ... (Gerner 1880, pp. 227-279).
Around the turn of the Century the term, “Gablonz Industry,” which established itself at
a very early stage, soon became a “collective name fora whole ränge of Industries... It
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