Sunday, January 17, 2010

More photos from Fåglavik glassworks

Here come more photos from the Fåglavik Glassworks. A big thanks to Ingemar Nilsson for letting us use the photos from his great webpage about the Fåglavik glassworks. Ingemar was one of the last glassblowers that worked at Fåglavik until the glassworks closed down in 1980. His webpage is filled with history, photos of the workers, buildings and glassware from the beginning of the glasswork’s life till the end.  Ingemar did a very good job on this page together with web designer Hans Ivarsson.

Fåglavik glassworks the beginning of the 20th century
Workers at Fåglavik around 1900
Glasshouse at Fåglavik 1907-1909

Workers at Fåglavik 1942
Ingemar Nilsson

 

Enjoy a visit to Ingemar Nilsson’s webpage: http://www.faglaviksglas.se/

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Saturday, December 19, 2009

Coastal Nisse ‘Kystnissen’

The gnome, goblin or ‘nisse’ as they are being called in Norway is an important character in Norwegian sagas, mythology and folklore, as well as a folklore character in other European countries. There are many different types of gnomes (nisser) in Norway; the most common ones are the ‘barn nisse’. But there is also another type to be mentioned; it is the ‘mountain-nisse’, ‘church-nisse’, ‘ship-nisse’ and ‘forest nisse’. The ones pictured are the coastal nisse (kystnisse). The majority of the Norwegians associate the nisser with little creatures wearing red hats, who live in barns, sheds and boathouses.

 

The nisse could be a good helper to a family, for example, feed the animals or do other necessary things throughout the year. If he was treated nicely and given porridge at Christmas, he wouldn’t bring about trouble. He could also be naughty and unpredictable by causing accidents if he was not treated well.

 

The ones pictured below are the ‘costal nisser’ from the north of Norway, and are recreated after the images of nisser from north Norwegian folklore.

We would like to wish all of you much joy this Holiday Season. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

P.S. Don’t forget to treat the gnomes well, just in case.

 



 

 

 

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Monday, November 30, 2009

The Puyallup fair

These photos were sent to us by Todd, who is the owner of the glass floats shown in the stand this fall at Puyallup fair. Todd has one of the world’s finest Euro float collection and exhibited a part of his collection at a big fair in Puyallup, Washington. The display case was 94” wide, 29” deep and 30” high and Filled with beautiful and rare glass floats in different colours and shapes from Europe and America. What a great job Todd did displaying his floats! Simply wonderful.




 

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Saturday, September 26, 2009

Fåglavik Glassworks

Fåglavik Glassworks

(adapted and translated by us from the book by Linnar Linnarsson ‘Hågkomster från Glasbruket i Fåglavik’)

Anders Magnus Andersson from Fillipstad, Sweden owned a company together with his companion Anders Ørnberg, retailing glass and porcelain starting 1859. The company was called ‘Ørnberg & Andersson AB’  and was located in Gothenburg. The business went well thanks to Anderson’s goals and energetic leadership and in 1867 he bought off his companion and became the sole owner of the business.
 
In 1874 Andersson bought land in Fåglavik, Västergötland, Sweden, and established his own glassworks, bringing his dream to life.
In 1882 there was a new employee at Fåglavik - Emil Nyman. Soon after he achieved the ‘master’ title in blowing glass. It is during his presence the glass factory was awarded a silver medal  for glass floats for fishing nets at the International Fisheries Exhibition in Edinburgh 1882. The glassworks stops its work in the year 1980.

 

There is no document or any other source that we found, stating any trademark of the glassworks’s fishing floats.

 

Below is the copy of the awarding diploma. Anders Ørnberg’s name is being mentioned in there since Andersson never changed the name of his company - ‘Ørnberg & Andersson AB’, although being the sole owner of the Fåglavik Glassworks.

Workers outside the Fåglavik Glassworks. 1958.

Click on the pics to enlange them.

For further information and photos from Fåglavik visit http://faglaviksglas.se

 

 

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Sunday, February 8, 2009

Glass Floats on the Shikotan island, Russia

Here is an old picture (unfortunately there is no date of when it was taken available) from the fishing port in Shikotan, Russia.
As far as we know, Russians are still using and manufacturing glass fishing floats in the East of Russia, although glass floats are considered by fishermen as ‘unpractical’ and ‘fragile’, so they mostly use plastic and aluminium floats now.

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Saturday, February 7, 2009

Porbeagle Fishing

Here is an old photo showing porbeagle fishing in the Norwegian sea. A handline with a big hook and a strong rope or a wire were used. Glass floats were fastened to the line. When the shark was on the hook, the floats were thrown into the sea to slow down the shark in its attempt to get away/get loose. This method was used until 1928.

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The new blog

Our new blog is working now.
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