Page 24 - February1999

22 NNNONAN, BU]IIION BUN,N,ETN February 1999

The Czech Qlass Phenornenon

An lntroduction to "The New Beginnings" or a
chronology of events leading to this Article
Lucille Weingarten and
M.I(. Speights

Several years ago, the Editor received a large packet of color photos with a
letter from Lisa Schulz of Wisconsin. Lisa had just purchased a collection of
hundreds of Czech glass buttons from a glass dealer who had just returned
from a buying trip to Czechoslovakia. These buttons were from a sales sampler
kit that had been stored since World War I. Although these were old Czech
glass, we had never before seen the beautiful designs, great colors and various
finishes on these realistics, painted black glass, clear and opaque glass and
coralene glass buttons. This was then, the beginning of the awareness of
Czechoslovakia as the place to travel for old stashes...and perhaps new
specimens of glass. We filed Lisa's information for future use in the Bulletin.
(See color pages for examples from Lisa Schulz).

/Lnd )\Jow, The $eautiful
New Czech Qlass. . .

A year or so after hearing from Lisa, two great realistics suddenly appeared on
dealers' cards. The first, a ripe, red, realistic tomato brought forth such
excitement when discovered - soon followed by a realistic soft pale green
mouse! Bib (Mary Libby Neiman) of Chicago was one of the first dealers who
had them for sale. Soon they were everywhere and in much demand. The
serious collector of glass realistics quickly realized that something big was
looming on the horizon...it was the avalanche of new and colorful Czech
glass buttons, which were an absolute delight to the eye.
Jane Johnson of Califomia started to import Czech buttons at about the
same time.
We then received a letter from Susannah Jordan of Colorado, who
informed us about another dealer - Kathryn Donnerbeck from Washington,
who was importing quantities of Czech buttons and conducting tours to
Czechoslovakia. Susannah also enclosed pictures ofthe stages ofmaking these
buttons, which you will find elsewhere in this article.
Susannah also reminded us that at the Tacoma 1998 show, a program
entitled "Glass Buttons - The Work of Many Hands Czechoslovakian
Factories" was going to be presented by Robin Atkins. Many members