Beránek & Škrdlovice: Legends of Czech Glass

Detail knihy ~ Beránek & Škrdlovice: Legends of Czech Glass, Mark Hill, Robert Bevan, Jindřich Pařík

For over six decades, fine handmade glass produced in the Czechoslovakian village of Skrdlovice (pronounced skerd-luv-itz’ah) was admired and exported across the world. Many of the country’s best glass designers produced influential and stunning designs for the factory, some of which were shown at major international exhibitions. Due to the Communist ‘Iron Curtain’, the background behind this glass and the identities of the people responsible for producing it have been hidden until now. This publication is the first to reveal the fascinating story behind the glass, detailing for the first time the designers, chronology and production processes that went into making it. Typically mis-attributed to factories on Murano and Scandinavia, many of the designs will be highly familiar to 20thC design and glass collectors.

The book is divided into chapters, each covering roughly one decade of production from when the factory was founded in 1942 until it closed in 2008. Each chapter finishes with profiles of key designers working during that period, including biographical details and information about their styles and careers. Many now have international reputations and their work can be found in important private and public collections. Unique ‘Hallmark Design’ features showcase a key design for each designer and give more information on that piece.

Contents Include:
• Over 150 specially commissioned, full colour photographs, including reproductions of drawings from the factory’s pattern book and hitherto unseen images of the factory and its designers.
• A full contextual history of the factory, with entirely new information on hundreds of designs and designers from 1941-2008.
• Unique ‘Designer Profiles’, giving biographical information about key designers, along with information about their careers, styles and an iconic ‘Hallmark Design’.
• Designers covered include Emanuel and Jan Beránek, Milena Velísková, Marie Stáhlíková, Vladimír Jelínek, Frantisek Vízner, Karel Wünsch and Pavel Hlava.
• The book closes with a practical and useful full colour illustrated appendix covering factory labels, export labels, signatures, bases, sizes, colours, production quantities, useful websites and a complete list of designers by year.

Beránek & Škrdlovice: Legends of Czech Glass

Recenze knihy ~ Beránek & Škrdlovice: Legends of Czech Glass, Mark Hill, Robert Bevan, Jindřich Pařík