Glasriket - The Kingdom of Crystal

"Glasriket" means Kingdom of Crystal.

Glasriket is an area in the middle of the county of Småland in the southeastern region of Sweden. This area, nestled in the forests between Nybro and Växjö, is regarded as The Kingdom of Crystal. It has approximately twenty world-famous glassworks and even more artglass studios.

The first glassworks in Glasriket started in the 1700's. One of the first was Kosta glassworks. During the 1800's, production grew steadily, and the size and number of glassworks increased. Several glassblowers at Kosta started their own glassworks. Many of them were successful, and the glassworks area Glasriket was firmly founded.

Until this century, Swedish artglass was dependent on foreign prototypes.
In the first years of the 1900's, when Gunnar G:son Wennerberg was employed at Kosta and Reijmyre glassworks hired Alf Wallander, the unique Swedish artglass design started. With Simon Gates at Orrefors in 1916 and Edvin Ollers at Kosta, Swedish artglass became world famous. The designers in the beginning of 1900's have since had many famous followers.

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