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Beads of all types have been made for centuries mostly in
what is now Western and Eastern Europe . Specifically, the focus of this article is on
Czech beads or by their other name Bohemian Glass Beads. They got their name from Bohemia ,
a region in central Europe that occupied
two-thirds of the lands that was a kingdom in the Holy Empire, and later the
Austrian Empire.
The manufacturing of beads in Bohemia began after 400 A.D. and by 900 A.D.
locally made beads were placed in tombs.
Three hundred years later glass factories were turning out a variety of
glass products, mostly household wares.
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By the 19th century there was a change in the
political face of Europe when Bohemia and Venice added the Austrian
Empire. All three regions competed with
each other prior to coming together as one and continued to compete afterwards
thanks to Czech “sample men”. They were
what we call today craftsmen and salesmen. They traveled world wide asking
people what beads they wanted made then would sketch the beads and write
descriptions underneath those sketches before returning to Bohemia to make them a reality. At the same time there was an industrial
innovation that produced new machines that pressed molten glass into heated
molds and resulted in mass production of identical beads.
Moving into modern history, Czech glass bead production is
closely allied to the impact of both World Wars and later the Cold War. The center of bead production was North Bohemia . It
has been the center of bead production since the 13th century. The area was a rich resource of potash and Quartz
needed for glass making. The three
cities that produced all the glass beads in the area were Jablonec, Stanovsko
and Bedricho (the last city is now called Reichenberg) known for making
rosaries. In the second half the 16th
century it became fashionable to produce costume jewelry.
A good website for more detailed information is
big-bead-little-bead.blogspot. If you click
on Czech
beads, you can see the individual homes where beads were made to supply
large companies.
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After WWI North Bohemia became part of Czechoslovakia and
initially bead production was doing well, and in fact, the region became the largest
bead exporter. When the Depression and
then WWII occurred bead production was greatly affected, and subsequently it was
dealt an even heavier blow when the communist government decided glass making
was not an approved industry. The Czech
government did not change its mind about bead production in Czechoslovakia
until the 1950s. Prior to this time many
North Bohemians left the area for Germany where they resettled and
restarted their businesses.
Decades later in 1989, communist control ended and Czechoslovakia split into two countries: Czech Republic
and Slovakia . (The Czech
Republic is now where North Bohemia now lies.)
