Rückl: A punk aesthetic that highlights the nobility of the renowned Czech crystal

The works Josef Drahoňovský created for Rückl were also of great importance. After the end of the First World War and Czechoslovakia’s independence from Austria-Hungary, he played a key role in defining the national characteristics of industrial glass design. These features conveyed the spirit of a newly liberated nation while keeping Czech glassmaking at the very top of the global scene – at a time when Western European countries such as Germany, Belgium and France also had complete mastery of glass technologies and production techniques. Drahoňovský’s vases, goblets and other works were presented as official gifts by President Tomáš Masaryk to the Pope and to heads of state, including the King and Queen of Yugoslavia, the King of Bulgaria, and many others. His collaboration with Rückl was therefore regarded as a matter of the highest prestige.

After the Second World War and the rise of the Communist Party to power, the glass industry was first severely weakened by the expulsion of all Germans from the country – many of whom had been among its finest craftsmen, designers and entrepreneurs. It was then further undermined by the declaration that decorative glass, especially hand-crafted pieces, was bourgeois, outdated and ideologically undesirable. As a result, by the 1960s Rückl was producing little more than simple laboratory ware and chamber pots. However, the Party paid close attention to economic performance and the country’s international reputation. From the 1950s onwards it organised major trade fair presentations of Czechoslovak glassmaking – in Milan (1957), Brussels (1958), Moscow (1959) and Montreal (1967) – and actively encouraged exports. Unlike writers and film directors, glass artists and designers were generally able to work without major restrictions, and could even establish their own studios within factories, as glass was not considered a politically dangerous medium. New state-owned enterprises, such as Český křišťál (Czech Crystal), of which Rückl became a part, took charge of fine glass production and the modernisation of glassworks. Most crystal was exported under the label “Bohemia Glass”, making the individual manufacturer – whether Rückl, Moser or Inwald – largely irrelevant at the time. Occasionally, factory labels were also applied, but these only became significant later, with the development of the antiques market. In reality, the communist authorities were deeply suspicious of traditional craftsmanship, yet they strongly supported industrial design and the fine arts. Although the pre-war owners of glassworks suffered enormous losses and artists were unable to travel abroad for many years, Czechoslovak commercial and artistic glass production nevertheless developed substantially during the Cold War.