Icicles, Pine cones - the first Figural German Glass Ornaments before the creation of moulds

Posted on October 24, 2012 | 0 Comments

In 1597 Christoph Mueller and Hans Greiner established the first German glassworks in the town of Lauscha (60 miles north of Nurnberg), in the German state of Thuringia. It is the Mueller family that has worked in the glass industry from that time and subsequently become Inge-Glas of Germany.

A descendant of Greiner created the first glass Christmas ornaments in 1847. These original Christmas ornaments came in the shape of balls (kugels) and then in the form of the first figurals. Interestingly, the Christmas balls were a then "modern" substitute for the apples of the paradise tree (a precursor to the Christmas tree).

The first figurals were most likely icicles and pine cones, as it was possible to make them before the creation of ornament moulds. The first balls, kugels, were blown free form. Icicles were also possible to blow from that free form glass, in an elongated form. Click on the ornament image to find it on www.mygrowingtraditions.com

: Inge-Glas Jeweled Icicle Hand-Blown Glass Ornament

Louis Greiner-Sholotfeger discovered that a glass bubble could be blown against a wooden springerle mould shaped like a Pine cone, the classic symbol of winter beauty. The mould shaped the hot almost molten glass into the pine cone ornament. Pine Cones were a natural as they mimicked the natural items used to adorn Christmas trees before the invention of the glass ornament. This discovery lead to producing other shapes in moulds. Click on the ornament image to find it on www.mygrowingtraditions.com