Redlhammer Brothers/Gablonz negotiated over a price agreement. This resulted in the
establishment of a syndicate and the fixing of production quotas, with Redlhammer in third
place (Redlhammer 1952, p. 45).
In the matter of patents and trade marks, the Company also sought to protect its rights: from
1889 to 1908, several trademarks were registered for Redlhammer. In 1908 we find the
“Panther Head” mark (for “pearl-like articles, porcelain buttons and porcelain beads”) for
the first time. It is familiär to us from a number of sample cards (ills. 246, 247, 253,254, 261,
272) (Zentralmarkenanzeiger 1908, p. 211). In the same year (1908) an important
Contemporary source reports on the Redlhammer Brothers, Porcelain Bead and Button
Factory, Gablonz:
“A very singulär industry which was not represented in Austria at all only a short time ago, is the
manufacture of porcelain beads and buttons. These articles are generally known in the trade
under the name, ‘Oriental Beads’ and Agate Buttons:’ they are ceramic products which are fired
at a very high temperature and which require an extraordinarily high degree of specialized knowl-
edge and very complicated machinery and equipment for their production.
Redlhammer Brothers in Gablonz, which has taken up this industry rationally for the first time, is
far older than their current manufacturing processes. It was founded already in the year 1854 by
the Imperial Councilor Eduard Redlhammer and his brother Albert and originally operated a
woven goods factory in Rochlitz near Reichenberg. It was not until later that it changed over to
the production and export of glass wares, porcelain beads and buttons. Since this industry, as we
know, has always been at home in the Gablonz area, it was logical for the Company to move to
Gablonz so that its new line of production could develop properly. In 1896, the Company built its
own factory here. It has had to be expanded a number of times since then. The owners of the
Company succeeded in overcoming the unusual technical difficulties they encountered in devel-
oping a usable product. A continuous improvement of the machinery assisting production made it
possible to perfect the quality of the product even more. At the same time new business Connec
tions were made, trips were taken to foreign countries and representatives were situated in all the
important export locations on the continent. The owners always kept an eye on the task of ex-
panding the local industry as a whole. They did not stop at establishing this new branch of manu
facture that was still in the development stage, but endeavored to bring it to the highest degree of
perfection. They have achieved this goal, since the porcelain beads and buttons they make are
exported all over the world and are able to maintain their importance on the world market to an in-
creasing extent, regardless of the very lively competition from outside... In 1905 an important
site was purchased in Gablonz and a big new factory built on it... thus, in the year 1908 alone, an
important expansion of the factory took place... The equipment for the works includes a large
number of special machines and devices constructed by the Company itself. Some of them are
not used anywhere eise in the country and are made in the company’s own machine shop. A
150 HP steam engine with modern precision Controls takes care of the mechanical drive for the
manufacturing machinery. In addition, there is an electric power plant for lighting and operating
various motors and the machine shop...”(Mahla 1908, p. 381).
The Redlhammder Brothers sample cards in the Technical Museum (complemented by a
few cards from the Gablonz Archive and Museum in Kaufbeuren-Neugablonz) comprise
the most complete collection of their kind, even though they apparently consist of examples
from different series. All of them, however, have the same press-molding technique in
common. The cards hold the populär and famous “Perles Orientales’’ (ills. 255, 256,
pp. 302, 303) as well as the short cyclindrical beads in different variations (ills. 260-263,
pp. 308-311): the so-called cylinder beads (“Walzenperlen”) (Redlhammer 1952, p. 74),
which were also called tube beads (“Röhrenperlen”) and once - strangely enough - even
“Rocailles” (ill. 260, p. 308); round and oval beads, discs, rings and stars; fapon beads of
various types and finally the “toothlike interlocking” beads patented in 1896 which create
smooth chains (ill. 251, p. 297).
The sizes of these press-molded beads can rarely be classified according to prescribed norms,
especially whentheytakeon unusual elongatedshapesoronlyformawholeinthree-partmotifs
consisting of demi-olives and discs (ills. 288, 289, 292, 293, pp. 336, 337, 340, 341).
304
