INTRODUCTION

Up  until  now  I  have  been  familiär  with  the  terms  black,  brown,  gold  and  copper  bronzite
from  archival  documents,  but  without  any  further  description  of  the  manufacturing  process.
  Basically  the  technique  of  bronzite  decoration  probably  involved  painting  a  special
bronzite  paste  onto  the  undecorated  glass,  drying  and  possibly  firing  it.  The  desired
decoration  was  then  etched  out  using  a  coating  lacquer  and  a  specific  painting  technique. ­

Robert  Schmidt  is  one  of  the  few  authors  to  deal  briefly  with  bronzite  decoration:
“The  collaboration  between  the  Lobmeyr  Company  and  Professor  Josef  Hoffmann  dates
from  the  year  1910.  The  first  designs  produced  by  Hoffmann,  a  teacher  at  the  Vienna
College  of  applied  art,  were  destined  for  bronzite  decoration,  which  had  been  developed
by  Professor  Hugo  Max  in  Steinschönau  a  short  time  before.  The  technique  consisted  of
giving  the  surface  of  the  glass  a  uniform  black  or  brown,  slightly  shiny  metallic  covering.
The  ornamentation  was  then  covered  with  lacquer  and  the  uncovered  area  etched  away
with  hydrofluoric  acid,  leaving  the  design  in  black  or  brown  on  the  mat  glass  surface.
This  decoration  was  very  much  in  keeping  with  the  predominant  black-and-white  fashion
of  the  time,  and  in  the  years  that  followed  Hoffmann  drew  up  six  different  designs  which
were  also  used  for  small  Services  and  flower  sets  .  ..  Other  artists  such  as  L.  H.  Jungnickel ­
  and  Urban  Janke  also  produced  designs  for  this  bronzite  decoration“  (Schmidt
1925,  p.  73)
We  know  nothing  about  the  origin  of  the  term  “bronzite",  nor  about  the  detailed  technical
  processes  used  to  produce  it.  To  my  knowledge  it  was  not  common  in  Contemporary
glass-making  outside  the  Austro-Hungarian  monarchy,  nor  is  it  dealt  with  in  the  technical
  glass  publications  at  my  disposal,  For  this  reason  the  notes  preserved  in  the  Lobmeyr ­
  company’s  order  books  -  usually  in  the  form  of  slips  of  paper  pasted  in  -  seem  to
me  all  the  more  valuable.  One  such  slip  of  paper  contains  a  copy  of  a  letter  from  Karl
Fiedler  to  the  Lobmeyr  Company  and  runs:
“Fiedler  letter  of  23rd  October  1911  /  Re  206/09,  I  must  unfortunately  note  to  our
greatest  mutual  dismay  that  the  missing  pieces  belonging  to  this  order  have  gone
wrong  as  a  result  of  having  being  etched  too  quickly,  due  to  the  asphalt  lacquer  peeling
  off.  This  is  a  consequence  of  the  lacquer  not  being  sufficiently  dry.  The  articles
should  have  dried  for  at  least  a  further  4  days,  but  in  order  to  try  and  keep  to  the  delivery
  time  if  possible,  I  tried  to  do  it.  But  unfortunately  the  etched  things  just  cannot
be  rushed.  The  articles  which  I  am  now  working  on  again  will  probably  take  about  another
  3  weeks.  I  have  again  given  the  two  beakers  A  with  stripes  (?)  and  engraved
balls  to  Herr  Kromer,  who  will  invoice  you  himself.”
The  order  number  206/09  quoted  is  apparently  a  mistake:  it  should  have  been  206/11.
We  can  learn  several  very  important  facts  from  the  few  lines  quoted  above:
1.  The  coating  lacquer  essential  for  etching  was  an  asphalt  lacquer  which  had  a  drying
time  of  at  least  four  days.
2.  The  total  production  time  for  glassware  with  bronzite  decoration  was  at  least  three
weeks.
3.  Emil  Kromer  of  Steinschönau  engraved  the  small  circular  areas  of  variant  A  bronzite
decoration  at  least  for  this  order  from  Fiedler.  Under  order  number  206/11  from  Fiedler
in  the  Lobmeyr  company’s  order  books  we  do  in  fact  find  the  note  “clear  balls  ground  by
Kromer  invoiced  (?)  20th  November  1911”.

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