Rise and fall of a family business.

To follow this family business, we would have to start in the 14th century, 1350 BC, give or take a few years, in the Black Forest of Germany, on the banks of the Rhine River, in a small glass hut attached to a barn which housed the family cow and also the family. Life was hard, part farmer, part rancher, part blacksmith, but not really, glass smith would be more accurate. Also part hunter, part businessman. In hindsight, the man, the husband, the father, was the founder of this family and the glass business that spun off from his efforts Would evolve into a new unimaginable art form of multiple dimensions and uses, and become world renown. Where he or his wife came from we will never know, but land and business records show he got married, raised his four children, biult his house, barn, glass hut, purchased equipment, paid taxes, buried two children and his wife in this area, and became a respected member of the community. His product was normal, run of the mill glassware, cups, bowls, window panes. Nothing special, other German glass pressers and blowers made similar products, but between them all they were well know throughout Germany and Europe for making glass. Until then, only Italy, specifically Venice, made glass, but the secret got out, and now the Germans were the new leaders.

‘Then everything changed. The Local German government taxed them so high, they could not survive. The young men were drafted into continual wars, so when King Charles of Bohemia approached the glass crafters with an offer to relocate to his empire with inducements of free land, free from night taxes, all the trees, sand, water they would need to make the glass they were so good at, with no risk of their precious sons being drafted into ceaseless wars, they all jumped at the offer, and to a man they all emigrated to the mountains of northern Bohemia.

‘oh, and it wasn’t easy. The mountains were wild, unsettled. No towns close by to shop in, to go to church or school. They would have to make it on their own wits and raw strength. And they did. Bohemia was the strongest empire in Europe at that time, and no one challenged it. It was a peaceful time and the Germans congratulated themselves on their choice of moving to these beautiful mountains. This family, and most of the other German families became if not rich, well off. They were still country folk, farmers, hunters, glass blowers, hard workers skilled at their unique profession. Life was good.