Beránek Glassworks

Biography

The Beránek glassworks began in 1941, when Emanuel Beránek and his brothers, Bohuslav and Josef, opened a small furnace in the village of Škrdlovice. Emanuel was already a master of molten glass, and after the war he bought his brothers' shares, becoming the factory's sole owner while they continued to work by his side.

By the early 1950s, as communism settled over the country, the factory took the name Škrdlovice. Though nationalisation stripped Emanuel of ownership, it did not silence his craft. He continued to lead the workshop, joined by his sons Jan and Jind?ich, and surrounded by a circle of gifted designers - Velíšková, Sta?liková, Kotík, Svoboda, Ježek, Oliva, and the renowned František Vízner.

Emanuel retired in 1959, leaving Jan to guide the glassworks through the decades that followed. When democracy returned in 1992, so too did the factory - restored to the Beránek family and renamed Beránek Glass S.R.O. Jan passed it to his son, Vlastimil, who carried the legacy until the kiln finally cooled in 2008.