FOREWORD

The  exhibition  “Glass  1905  -  1925”  was  held  at  the  Austrian  Museum  of  Applied  Art  in
Vienna  in  the  year  1985.  This  resulted  in  the  publication  of  my  first  work  on  this  subject,
which  was  devoted  entirely  to  cut  glass.  I  intended  to  deal  with  other  techniques
(stained,  etched,  painted,  engraved  glass  etc.)  in  a  second  volume.  However,  in  the
course  of  my  researches  I  came  across  such  extensive  and  important  material  on  glass
with  bronzite  decoration  that  it  seemed  logical  to  produce  a  separate  publication  on  this
special  field.
Thanks  to  the  documentation  preserved  in  the  Company  archives  of  J.  &  L.  Lobmeyr,
Vienna,  I  am  now  in  a  position  to  publish  an  almost  complete  record  of  the  bronzite  decorations
  created  by  Josef  Hoffmann,  Ludwig  Heinrich  Jungnickel,  Urban  Janke,  Oswald
Dittrich  and  Arnold  Nechansky.  The  subject  of  “black  and  gold  painting”  (including  the
pen  drawings  of  Karl  Massanetz)  has  also  been  documented  in  a  similar  manner  and  will
therefore  be  published  as  a  third  volume  in  the  series  “Glass  1905  -  1925”.  Further  volumes
  dealing  with  other  subjects  will  follow.
The  present  publication  would  not  have  been  possible  without  access  to  the  Company
archives  of  J.  &  L.  Lobmeyr.  I  should  therefore  like  to  thank  Harry  and  Peter  Rath  of  the
firm  of  J.  &  L,  Lobmeyr  for  their  wholehearted  support.
Professor  Ludwig  Neustifter  has  always  taken  a  close  interest  in  the  entire  “Glass  1905
-  1925”  project,  to  which  he  gave  his  support  as  head  of  the  Austrian  Museum  of  Applied ­
  Art.  I  should  therefore  like  to  take  this  opportunity  of  expressing  my  gratitude  to
him,  too.
The  travelling  exhibition  “Glass  1905  -  1925”  organised  by  the  museum  toured  the  Austrian ­
  provinces  (with  stops  in  Linz,  Graz  and  Salzburg)  and  attracted  the  interest  of  a
wide  audience.  Towards  the  end  of  the  1980’s  a  representative  selection  of  glassware
from  the  collections  of  the  Austrian  Museum  of  Applied  Art  is  to  be  exhibited  in  Prague
under  the  terms  of  a  cultural  agreement  between  Austria  and  Czechoslovakia.
The  fact  that  there  has  been  such  a  positive  echo  to  my  research  in  this  hitherto  rather
neglected  field  -  most  of  the  glass  involved  was  in  the  depositories  of  the  museums  in
Vienna  and  Graz  (Joanneum,  Provincial  Museum  of  Styria,  Department  of  Applied  Art)  -
makes  me  feel  obliged  to  continue  my  research  in  this  field.  This  is  an  Obligation  that  I
shall  have  pleasure  in  fulfilling.

Vienna,  August  1987

Waltraud  Neuwirth

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