On a tour of the Moser glass factory in Karlovy Vary, it’s possible to find a love for the Czech art of glass.
How expensive is Moser glass art?
Entering the shop, there really is a temptation to buy. Even for someone not overly inclined to taking home a souvenir, it’s undeniable that the glass work is worth-taking-home beautiful. Then, unfortunately, comes a glimpse of the price tags. Ah. Maybe not.
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History of the Moser Glassworks
The Moser glassworks was founded by engraver Ludwig Moser, who in 1857 opened his first shop in the Czech spa town of Karlovy Vary. He expanded to a factory on the outskirts of town in 1893, and since then, Moser glass pieces have found their way into mansions, palaces and oligarch’s villas around the world.
The show-off pieces in the museum are masterpieces of colour, shaping and engraving. But if the museum is essentially a giant advert, then stepping into the factory itself offers a few things that are wholly unexpected.
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Watching Moser glass being made
It would be reasonable to expect the factory to be a whirring hive of cutting edge, top of the range machinery. Instead, there’s a guy wearing shorts and Crocs blowing into a tube. Next to him is another chap, who has a bottle of beer by his side. It’s a non-alcoholic beer, but apparently the ‘non-alcoholic’ part was rather optional in the past.
It seems remarkably laid back, but there’s not a lot of point in forcing masters of their art to show up to work in uniform.
There’s a strong hierarchy, with the finickiest parts of the process left in the charge of those with most experience. In the case of the wine glasses, this means the assistant might do the part that contains the wine before passing over to his senior who does the glass and stem.
Sometimes it’s about power – the bigger pieces require more strength and lung capacity – but most of the time it’s about a steady hand and getting the intricacies just right. During quality control, up to 80% of pieces are rejected, melted down and recycled. And the more experienced the glassblower, the lower that percentage.
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Inside the Karlovy Vary glass factory
What’s striking watching the operation is the nerveless, unhurried competence – it feels like watching a yoga instructor meticulously but seemingly effortlessly work through a few warm up poses. The furnaces may be roaring at over 1,000 degrees Celsius, but no-one’s wearing gloves or steel-capped boots.
The wooden scoop paddles are dipped in water to shape the curves, moulds are twisted while blowing, and unwanted ends are dipped back in the furnace to burn them off. There’s a strangely entrancing humdrum nature to it all that seems entirely at odds with the glamour of the finished product. It seems inherently odd that a husband and wife team, happy in roles as master and assistant, can be dressed like they’re about to do a bit of wallpapering on a quiet Sunday afternoon while producing works of art that will later sell for thousands of pounds.
A visit becomes something more than a lesson in glassmaking; it’s a reminder of how something spectacular often comes as the result of something very calm, orderly, practiced and mundane. There’s a magic in the ordinary.
Booking a Moser Glassworks tour
The Moser Glassworks tour can be booked via the Moser site. Advance booking is essential.
More Czech travel ideas
Other Czech travel articles on Planet Whitley include a guide to Prague for solo travellers.
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