EXHIBITION 2016 “FLOWER GLASSES IN ALL COLOURS OF THE RAINBOW”
Glashistorisk Selskab Holbæk is exhibiting flower glasses from the members’ collections. The glasses are from Danish glassworks and from the period 1850-2000. On display are hyacinth glasses, tulip glasses and the early flower glasses.
Zwibelglass (bulb glass) is the early name for what we today call hyacinth and tulip glasses. As early as 1763 at the Norwegian glassworks Nøstetangen, we find zwibelglass, also in a blue and reddish version. In Denmark we first meet the term in the Holmegaard catalogue 1853, where you also find the early flower glasses (vases).
The classic colours are cobalt blue, green, red, amber and clear. And later the sea blue. There are so many nuances, because the glassworks used scrap glass from productions of coloured glass items and miscoloured glass masses for hyacinth glasses and hopscotch.
Until about 1900 all the glasses were blown by mouth and Holmegaard Glassworks are strongly represented with baluster-shaped versions. There are also glasses from the glassworks Conradsminde, Aalborg, Kastrup and Fyen. After 1900 the pressed versions appear and here especially Fyens Glassworks are dominating. The glasses blown by mouth are also produced, and examples of this are the youngest at the exhibition, the beautiful opal glasses, designed by Michael Bang and produced for Holmegaard at Fyens Glassworks.