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How it all began
The nobility’s desire for more and better light at society events led to the development of the first ceiling lights. The first crystal chandeliers were born in Italy, where the glass industry was booming in the 16th century. Thanks to a combination of the lighting fixtures themselves and the hand-ground glass pendants, not only was the light far brighter, but the aesthetics of the fixtures were also vastly improved. This increased beauty caught the eye of rulers across Europe.
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New Bohemian design in the Italian tradition
The tradition of crystal chandeliers in Bohemia began in the early 17th century as the result of an innovative experiment based on the Italian tradition. Bohemian crystal chandeliers, produced mainly in northern Bohemia, gradually gained popularity and became a major export. During this period, when the Holy Roman Empress, Maria Theresa of the House of Hapsburg, was crowned Queen of Bohemia in 1743, a breath-taking new style of chandelier was created in her honour. This beautiful chandelier has kept its original design to the present day and is known as the Marie Therese chandelier around the world.
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The rise of the glass and chandelier industry in Bohemia
From the middle of the 18th century, the amount of decorative glass produced started to increase. New glass chandeliers with glass arms decorated with trapped air bubbles brought recognition to Bohemian craftsmen thanks to the painstaking manufacturing processes. Many Bohemian glassworks produced chandelier trimmings in the 18th century. By the 19th century, the majority of glass trimmings were produced in glassworks in the Jizera Mountains in northern Bohemia. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, Bohemian crystal chandeliers, with their hand cut pendants, were a distinct category in European lighting fixtures.
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In the footsteps of Bohemian crystal chandeliers manufacturers
Artglass is the proud successor of a tradition that began over 300 years ago; the tradition of Bohemian crystal lighting fixtures. Since 1993, we have been striving to make our lighting fixtures unique, high-quality and exquisite in order to rank amongst the world’s top producers of crystal lighting fixtures.
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