Handmade glass protected by UNESCO

We’re incredibly thrilled by the news that handmade glass production has been added to the UNESCO Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The international committee made the decision on December 6, 2023, at its meeting in Botswana. With this ruling, the entire cultural world has paid tribute to the traditional craft of glassmaking while also declaring it will do everything to ensure its preservation for future generations.

International nomination

The Czech Republic celebrates this news together with the other countries sharing the nomination, namely France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, and Finland. The Czech negotiators managed to get not only the work done at the glassmaker’s furnace, i.e., glassblowing, recorded on the list but also the production of glass beads and figurines using a burner, as well as glass cutting, engraving, and painting. Specifically, this broad palette of glassmaking techniques is what makes Czech glassmakers unique.

From generation to generation

Our Moser glassworks has received its worldwide renown thanks to the handcrafted art of many generations of master glassmakers, cutters, engravers, and painters. Here we hand down our trade from generation to generation, and we’ve done so for 166 years. Handmade glass production has undergone some difficult times, but for now, it’s survived every war and crisis. It would be an irreplaceable loss if it were to vanish. “We’re grateful to our predecessors and the values that have helped us endure. We’ve long seen the craft of glassmaking as world heritage, and we’re incredibly happy to have it now protected under UNESCO,” says Moser’s General Manager, Pavel Mencl.

The glassmakers at Moser bear and develop an inherited legacy. At the furnaces, they blow glass into wooden forms carved or turned on a lathe from beech or pear wood. A pear tree orchard was planted at the glassworks. The beauty of the crystal is then brought to perfection by the talented hands of the cutters and engravers. Only the very best of the best work with us. In fact, engraver Tomáš Lesser was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his mastery. Since 1909, painters have adorned the glass with oroplastic, a traditional Moser technique. They decorate it with 24-karat gold, which is then burnished by hand with precious stones after the firing. These most demanding and noblest of vases and drinkware collections pass through sixty pairs of hands before reaching flawlessness.

Historical heritage and modern design

At the glassworks, we continue to produce our famous, historic collections but we also rise to current challenges. Our new pieces feature a uniquely modern design, yet they too are made by honest, handcrafted work, and all selected colours are chosen from the historical Moser sample book, derived from shades of semi-precious stones.

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