Cornell University Library Digital Collections

Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka

The father and son team of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka were the culmination of a long line of glass artisans from Bohemia, a glassmaking center of Czechoslovakia. As a young man, Leopold was strongly drawn to painting but in the interests of practicality, apprenticed to a jewelry maker and gem cutter before joining his father as a glassworker. He became an extraordinarily skilled lampworker, a skill that he taught his son when Rudolf became his father's sole assistant. Lampworking is a method used to fashion intricate and delicate forms from glass rods and tubes heated in a flame until they are soft enough to be manipulated into shapes.

History of the Blaschka Collection »