4/2023: Spa tumbler

Our museum manages a collection of historical glass. The collection was professionally documented in 2022 by PhDr. Jitka Lněničková, who is a renowned expert in the field of historical glass. The exhibit of the month is part of this newly documented collection.

The spa tumbler dates from the turn of the 1940s and 1950s and is an example of spa glass in the style of the Second Rococo. The semi-finished piece, i.e., the tumbler itself without decoration, comes from a glassworks in Šumava. It is glass blown into a wooden mould. Before leaving the glassworks in Šumava, the tumbler underwent a finishing process. Further refinement was carried out in a workshop in North Bohemia.

The goblet is decorated with medallions with gilded engravings. The first medallion has the German inscription “Andenken / von / Teplitz” (“Souvenir from Teplice”), written in Roman script on a blue surface, while the second one has an engraving with a view of a large building with three towers and the inscription “Mariaschein” (“Bohosudov” – a view of the pilgrimage site and the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows), the third medallion shows a view of the chateau and the church in Duchcov with the inscription “Dux bei Teplitz” (“Duchcov near Teplice”), while the last medallion shows a view of a hill with a summerhouse and the inscription “Wilhelmshöhe” (“Wilhelm’s Heights” – formerly a popular restaurant).

In the early 19th century Teplice was an important spa town. Ludwig van Beethoven, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Fryderyk Chopin, Josef Dobrovský, Josef Jungmann, František Palacký and other prominent figures visited the spa. However, in the second half of the 19th century, the spa town of Teplice lost its importance due to industrial development, and the character of the town changed significantly as a result of the nearby brown coal mines. Moreover, Teplice found it difficult to cope with competition from other spa towns. Thus, the luxurious mid-19th century spa tumbler serves as a reminder of the golden era of the spa industry in Teplice, shortly before its decline. And how did the exhibit find its way to the Municipal Museum in Železný Brod? It is hard to say. The sources are silent and the tumbler itself won’t tell us. It seems that the path of the spa tumbler to our museum will remain unexplained.