The Chřibská glassworks, full name Sklarna Chřibská, was founded in 1414, in the town of Chřibská, which was originally part of Bohemia, and became part of Czechoslovakia in 1919. The factory was known as the oldest glassworks in Europe, until its closure in 2007. In 1882 it was bought by the Mayer family, who ran things until World War II. When communism arrived in the country around 1950, many factories were nationalised, and Chřibská became part of the Borske Sklo National Corporation. At this time Josef Hospodka joined the factory, at first running the glassmaking school at Chřibská, and then becoming head designer at Borske Sklo and Chřibská from 1958-1970. During this period, Josef produced many organic, sculptural blown glass designs, which proved very popular, and many of his designs remained in production until the factory closed in 2007. In 1970, Josef left to become headmaster of a glass school at Kamenicy Senov until 1985, when he returned to the Chřibská factory as a designer, until his death in 1989. Chřibská was privatised in 1993, the new owner being Jiri Cerny, with Zdena Jobova as designer.
Sources: 20th Century Factory Glass by Lesley Jackson, & Hi Sklo Lo Sklo by Mark Hill.
There are several Chribska catalogues available online, which date to between 1970 - 1999. The catalogues include pattern numbers, but no information on designers, however several designs are also featured in issues of the Czech Glass Revue, and earlier issues of these list Josef Hospodka as designer. It is likely that most if not all of the pieces shown below, were designed by Josef, but we have only included his name in those designs that can be confirmed in issues of Czech Glass Revue or elsewhere. Pattern numbers are made up of three sections, the first being the pattern range, the second being the shape number from that range, and the third being the size, in centimetres, of the longest dimension (height for vases and baskets, width for bowls). Not all available shapes, colours and sizes were shown in each catalogue. The size section of the pattern numbers shown below may differ slightly from those listed in the catalogues, as sizes can obviously vary, and we have used the sizes of the items in our possession.
