Vases, 1966

Customer demand in the 1960’s brought bright colors to traditionally clear pressed glass and glassware. As the company designer of the Jablonecké sklárny (Jablonec Glassworks), Václav Hanuš was, understandably, required to address not only questions of aesthetics, but also solve technical and manufacturing requirements. One of the results was a set of ‘tree trunk’ vases that became a successful hit. The artist recalls: "We realized that colors could also be created in the furnance, in order to achieve the desired quality of glass. There was one problem: we had only one furnance, and in it we had to sequentially melt five colors. Obviously it was not possible to do all five at once. We ended up somehow doing it by switching the colors in the daily batch, but then we still had the glass between batches. These were never the same color – either as the previous batch or the desired next batch. What were we to do?  Drain it? So I invented these economical branch-like vases. I made them so they would hide the defects in the glass. And the fact that they came in somewhat unusual colors didn’t matter... greenish, bluish..."                      

In the Czech Republic and Around the World

1966

A Soviet spacecraft lands on Venus; the first Star Trek episodes are broadcast; the first World Orienteering Championships are held; the first national beauty contest is held in Czechoslovakia; the Vatican withdraws the List of Prohibited Books (Index Librorum Prohibotorum); Hitler's architect Albert Speer is released from prison; LSD is declared illegal for personal and research use in the US; Chevrolet Camaro is introduced on the market; the first “botasky” shoes appear on the Czechoslovakian market.