Buttons from Jablonec, Czech Republic

Almost every year Nir and I travel to the Czech Republic to visit the factories that produce our beads and buttons. In one of our trips we visited the Museum of Glass and Jewellery in Jablonec Nad Nisou to understand more about the history behind the products that we sell. Although our visit to the museum was a few years ago, I kept some of the pictures we took while we were there. The following text “Buttons from Jablonec”  is taken from the museum, so all credit goes to the Museum of Glass and Jewelry in Jablonec Nad Nissou. The images from the museum are ours, as are the captions below them.

BUTTONS FROM JABLONEC

Glass buttons, beads and recailles beads, for the first time emerging in the 1860s, were the most important production and export commodity in the Jizera Mountains. One hundred years later, a “button fever” swept the local area. A wide selection of buttons with thousands of decorations, from the cheapest articles to the most elaborate ones, were exported worldwide. Particularly the period between the two world wars was propitious for the production and export of the Jablonec buttons, the biggest and most important producers and exporters being the Gebruder Mahla, Wilhelm Klaar and Gebruder Feix companies.

However, in the course of time glass buttons were gradually making way for articles of wood, sinter, plastic and the like. In this sphere, the Johann Schowanek, Gebruder Redlhammer or Ertel companies won recognition. After 1945, the production of glass and plastic buttons were concentrated in the then national enterprises Sklenena bizuterie (Glass fashion jewellery) and Zeleznobrodske solo (Zelezny Brod Glass). Metal buttons were made at the national enterprise Bizuterie (Fashion Jewelry) and wooden buttons at Tofa. After the year 1989, small private companies manufactured these products for West European and particularly American customers.