Web Description:
Northern Bohemia, Nový Bor/Haida, Friedrich Egermann, about 1830-1840. Two inventions led to the popularity of Steinglas, glass imitating the opaque surface of stones, in Bohemia and Austria. First, in 1816, Georg F. A. Longueval (1781-1851), count of Buquoy, invented a dense opaque black and red glass at the glasshouse on his estate in southern Bohemia. This Hyalith glass (from the Greek hyalos, "glass", and lithos, "stone") was often decorated with gilding. The second invention, Lithyalin glass (the name is derived from the same two Greek words), was that of the chemist Friedrich Egermann (1777-1864), who worked in northern Bohemia. He created opaque glasses in a new range of rich colors. Lithyalin, which was produced in many decorative styles from 1828 to 1840, was a polished, marbled glass that imitated the appearance of semiprecious stones. Egermann's work was copied by other Bohemian companies.