We have our second Knight!

Only one other Czech glassmaker has received this honour: Moser engraver Tomáš Lesser in 2020. Both now stand in rather outstanding company. For instance, the former president and playwright Václav Havel, author Bohumil Hrabal, painter and graphic designer Adolf Born, chanson singer Hana Hegerová, director Jiří Menzel, pianist and harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková, and opera singer Magdaléna Kožená have all received awards in the past granted by this prestigious order of the French Ministry of Culture. Foreign recipients then include the likes of actors Sean Connery, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, and George Clooney, actresses Audrey Hepburn and Meryl Streep, singers and musicians Bono, David Bowie, and Bob Dylan, authors Ray Bradbury and Paulo Coelho, and director and scriptwriter Tim Burton.

His entire life spent at Moser

Zdeněk Drobný’s entire professional life was tied to the Moser glassworks. After 51 years, he retired in 2022. His final piece was the renowned Pear vase by designer Lukáš Jabůrek. For the special occasion of receiving this French decoration, however, Zdeněk Drobný returned to the glassworks for a short while, making himself and the people happy, and blew the completely new piece: the Era vase. “Working the furnace is challenging. I wondered if I could still manage such a difficult vase at 80 years old, but it went fantastically,” says Zdeněk Drobný about the new vase, designed by Moser’s Art Director, Jan Plecháč. Blowing the vase requires true mastery as well as excellent physical conditioning – Zdeněk Drobný has both. He lives a healthy life, has played sports since childhood, and still exercises, runs, and rides his bike. He cycled 8600 km last year.

His entire life has been linked to Moser. Born in Karlovy Vary, he began visiting the glassworks as a young boy. He was taken on as an apprentice by master glassmaker Anton Schmiedkunz. He could sense he had the talent and necessary enthusiasm. To this day, Zdeněk thinks back on him with love and gratitude: “I owe everything I know to him. He was German and had trouble speaking Czech, and his father, also a Moser glassmaker, was killed near Stalingrad as a foot soldier in the Wehrmacht. He guided my first steps. I watched how he picked up the blowpipe, how he moved his hand, and he taught me the craft, discipline, and appreciation for others.

Moser for princesses and queens

Zdeněk Drobný began working at the glassworks in 1971. He blew the most challenging drinkware sets, including those that would later sit on royal dinner tables. His domain was the Baroque Collection, where he had to blow a crystal tear into the glasses’ stem, a job only fit for true masters. He also had a weakness for the Paula Collection. “It’s beautiful, even nuptial for me; we toasted with the glasses from this collection at my wedding.” And he blew this pink-underlaid collection for Camilla, wife of England’s King Charles III. Zdeněk Drobný also managed to make exceedingly difficult inlaid crystal, something unique to Moser, which was first created at the glassworks over 100 years ago. This is an original technique where the walls of the vases and bowls are adorned with an inlay (a layer of molten glass) shaped like cut flowers.

He also remembers meeting various personalities who came to see the glassmakers’ work at Moser. For instance, President Václav Havel, who even tried blowing some glass himself, Princess Chulabhorn of Thailand, who came in person to select glass for her royal father, as well as the former King of Spain, Juan Carlos I and his wife Sofía. “The queen stood next to me watching as I blew the glass, and I gave her the finished product. Later, I saw on TV how she carried it throughout the entire tour of the glassworks, never letting it out of her hands.” Then, when the son of the current King of Spain, Felipe VI, got married, the newlyweds and wedding guests raised a toast with Moser glasses from the Copenhagen Collection. The meeting with the grandchildren of the glassworks’ founder, Ludwig Moser, was also pleasant and touching. They flew in from the USA in 1997 for the 140^th anniversary of the company’s founding. And Zdeněk even taught them how to blow the same crystal glass that has fascinated him since his childhood.

Gratitude and love

“When I first learned I was going to receive a Knight’s medallion, tears came to my eyes and my mind went straight to the old masters, especially Mr Schmiedkunz, because without them, I’d have never received this honour. It saddens me they didn’t live long enough to see it. But as soon as I get that medallion, I’m going to show it to Mr Schmiedkunz’s son, who also works at Moser, because it’s not just for me but for his father too,” says the freshly knighted glassmaker, Zdeněk Drobný, displaying his gratitude.

Zdeněk also has his own successor – the talented Vlastimil Habart. He passed his experience, glassmaker’s blowpipe, and other equipment down to him. And he did it with peace in his heart. He says Vlastimil was born for the glass, just like himself.