Jaroslav Švácha

* 1964

  • "We have a position, and we have built it up over the last twenty years, that Nový Bor is the world's number one centre for the production of handmade art and craft glass. Whoever wants something in glass goes to Nový Bor if they can't get it cheaper somewhere else. Yes, China, Turkey and so on. But they can't do everything there. Czech improvisation is so beautiful that we can cope with anything, and there is such a beautiful belonging that I can do this, and he can do that, and we can help each other. If I can't do it, I'll send you to this guy who can do it." - "And do you think that's persisted through the transition to the free market and competition, that it hasn't been destroyed?" - "It hasn't. That's the spirit of it [Crystal Valley]. Sure, people are standing on the fringes that we don't talk to, and they don't talk to us. But it's about not being envious but instead knowing that it's hard work. I have no problem sending someone somewhere else, and we are able to help each other. We've been helped that way in terms of grinding. Last year, we did a prestigious job for Lasvit at a very prestigious place, and we needed to grind a lot of glass in a short time. I called it 'Grinding all over the Czech Republic'. Whoever could ground what they could for us. They could have ditched us, but a lot of people cancelled their holidays for us. On the other hand, it's my honour and duty to pay them and not to bargain if they do a good job. I've got 30 grinders here that aren't anywhere else in the world. And that's the strength and the future - knowing how to advise each other, knowing how to help each other. It's at a low point right now, with a lot of glassworks closing and many studios cutting back and pulling out... it's all down now. But it's going to get better. That's the way it's been and will always be with glass."

  • "The big Crystalex broke up into local ones, and it went on. With the fact that the Crystalex here in Bor was under the pretty firm tutelage of the director Arnošt - that it had to work because it's a day-to-day production where you can't stop it for 24 hours. At that time, glass was selling well. The question was how undervalued [czech] crown was in terms of raw materials. You could make a pretty good profit on it, and it worked. Under privatization, there was an interest in it from the likes of these modern captains of industry who had contacts and started seeing it all through the lens of money, and I don't think they saw much of the future of glass. This includes what happened with Crystalex, with Skloexport, and the break-ups of the business networks. The 1990s were an interesting time to start, but on the other hand, the owners got the glassworks, and not everybody thought well of glass." - "Was that the case with Crystalex?" - "It was very very complicated there because of the privatization that was being pushed back and pushed back... finding the least amount of money possible for the golden egg and the golden goose. Everything was stretched out, and I think there was also a political struggle as to who would get the majority and who would benefit financially. Unfortunately, it then ended in that shameful crash in 2008 when it all came to a halt. Suddenly, Nový Bor became a dead city. Who remembers, the lights went out everywhere, and there wasn't a family left unaffected. That was cruel. I guessed - wrongly, thank God - that it wouldn't get up and running again. Once a colossus like that stops, it is such a big hit that the doors get shut, and that will be the end of it. Thank goodness it's different today."

  • "Mr Ullmann and glass is a chapter in itself. Hubertus Ullmann came from a distinguished glassmaking family, his father having worked as a glassmaker for the Riedl family, a renowned German family that owned many glassworks in the Jablonec region and also, among others, Svor. Mr. Ullmann was removed from Svor after the war. He met us just after 1990, and by some chance and by some twist of fate, the Czech-German or German-Czech historical glass relations were established again when the whole history of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries is interwoven with Czech-German relations as far as glassmaking is concerned. In 1990, he started to help us a lot with making contacts abroad. He took us as representatives of the Klára Glassworks, which produces coloured flat glass, to his stand at the Glasstech fair in 1990, which he did not have to do. He showed us a lot of friends there and showed them the flat glass that we produced in Polevsko, showed it to the world and helped us to trade with it. That was the first introduction to it. He was pointing us in certain directions, saying, 'Watch out, good here, bad here.' It was gentle. I was terribly young at the time, so it was an open world, eyes on top of my head, being introduced to everything. Plus, he was a polyglot, so he remembered Czech even after the years he spent with his family in Argentina after the war because they founded an Argentine glass factory, then in Mexico, then in Germany."

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    Liberec, 22.01.2024

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After the Revolution, Nový Bor glass had a good start, then it had to be rescued

Jaroslav Švácha during his studies at VŠCHT, 1983
Jaroslav Švácha during his studies at VŠCHT, 1983
photo: Witness archive

Jaroslav Švácha was born on 20 August 1964 in Jindřichův Hradec. From 1982 to 1987, he studied the technology of silicates at the University of Chemical Technology (VŠCHT). During his military service, he worked in the missile army and was a state secret holder, his unit operated with missiles designed to carry nuclear warheads. During his military service, he turned down an offer to become a spy and follow trends in glass development abroad. Instead, he joined a separate department of the State Glass Research Institute in Polevsko. For example, he was involved in the development of coloured signal glasses for military aviation purposes. After the Velvet Revolution, the institute collapsed, and the separate workplace became the rebuilt Glassworks Klára. During the privatisation, the witness decided to go the way of his own business and founded the TGK glassworks in Skalice near Česká Lípa, where he focused mainly on flat glass. After the bankruptcy of Crystalex in 2009, together with other Nový Bor glassmakers, he helped to save the tradition of the International Glass Symposium IGS. In 2024 he lived in Nový Bor. We were able to record this story thanks to the financial support of Lasvit.