Glassmakers Part 7. Glassworks and Glassworkers in the County of Saarebourg Historical Chronicle Preface A posthumous work. The author died in 1988 - Mr. Stenger was a glassworker. One can feel the man and his art in his writings. Comte of Dabo (County of Dabo) From the high middle ages, the county of Dabo was a political and geographical entity whose mountains were covered by forests - its numerous Gallo-Roman remains prove that it was inhabited from the early Christian era. The chateau of Hommert situated on a rocky promitory where you can see the remains of its structure probably dated from the 13th or 14th century. The chateau of Dabo which literally means "eagles nest" was constructed at the end of the 12th century according to "Beaulieu" or in the 13th according to "Dagobert Fischer". And finally, the chateau of Durrenstein below Walsheid (the old town of Dabo) was in the middle of a circle with a 10 kilometer diameter which encompassed almost all the glassworks. In 1613 the county was composed of the following villages, Dabo, Walsheid, Abreschviller, Voyer, and Engenthal. In the 10th century the county of Dabo passed to Louis, Count of Moha by marriage. He leaves as a descendent, Helwig. Hugues IV, d'Eguisheim in marrying Helwig, created the family line Eguisheim, which lasted 10 centuries. From this marriage was born, Brunon, 21 June 1002, the future Pope Leon IX who reigned from 1049 to 1054, after serving as bishop of Toul. The greater part of the county seems to have been kept as a fiefdom of the Abbey of Andlau, founded by Ste. Richard, wife of Charles (the Gross), who in 879 gave Walsheid and all its land to the monastery. Albert III, last Count of Dabo - d'Eguisheim, died in 1211 leaving two sons who killed each other in a tournament at Andenne, near Liege and a daughter, Gertrude. Inheriting from the Count she married Thiebaud of Lorraine and became the Duchess of Lorraine. After he died in 1220, she married Thiebaud, Count of Champagne. This marriage was annulled by the Pope because of consanguinity. From her third marriage with Simon of Linange, the county fell to the family of Linange Dabo from the time of her death in 1225 until the Revolution. Altogether, the property of Gertrude encompassed the bishoprics of Metz, Strasbourg, and the Abbey of Andlau. The Linange kept only the church in Strasbourg and abandoned all of their possessions in Dabo, Lorraine and Alsace. Political events led to a break-up of the county in 1613 dividing it between Falkenbourg and Hartenbourg, a division that lasted until 1774. The Thirty-Year-War (1618-1648), affected the county as well Lorraine. In 1679 the castle, after it was captured by Monclar, was destroyed by the order of Louvois. The treaty of Ryswick in 1697 restored the rights of the Linange, who recognized the sovereignty of Louis XIV. From the time of the destruction of the castle, the counts turned over the administration to bailiffs (or sheriffs) established in Saverne, Hohengoeft and Strasbourg. They never returned to the county. Before the Thirty Year War, there were already windmills and glassworks in the county, but it wasn't until 1660 that an effort was made to repopulate by inviting colonists from Switzerland and the Tyrol. This industrialization created a prosperous region. = Industrialization of the Region The forests of Dabo and St. Quirin, like those of Bitche and Darnay and Argonne were good areas for business that could use the forests for fuel. The forges of Abreschviller were under the control of the Princes of Linange, authorized to make steel and to facilitate the construction of factories that would utilize the products of the forests. The glassworkers preferred the beech forests because the heating power was better. But later a ban was set in order to preserve the forests. We cite the existence of paper mills, forges and tile making factories to show the development of the region as an industrial force. The Establishments of the Glassworks We do not have documents permitting us to go back to the beginning of the glassworks in the middle ages, as is the case for the glassworks in Voge de Darnay. A document from the archives in Nancy from 1460 tells of mirrors purchased at St. Nicolas of Port as well as St. Curien, near Blamont to be used in the chateau of Joinville. The line of mirror manufacturers in the region of Blamont, St. Quirin goes back to the 16th century. As early as 1525 a historian notes that mirrors manufactured at St. Quirin were delivered throughout the Christian world. In 1551 in a revenue statement of the county of Dabo, we learn of two glassworks near Hafflingenthal (a place that has not been identified). This town has disappeared from the map. Numerous documents from the Archives of Nancy describe mirror production from St. Quirin from the end of the 16th century. All the sites of ovens found in the forests date from the 16th or 17th century. The absence of documents leaves open to speculation the exact beginnings. The first glassworks, composed of several glassmakers and their families, were set up in the middle of the beech forests. The first glassworks were small and were called Stutzenhutten (simple huts in the forests). Four tree trunks stuck in the ground made up the four corners and the four sides or partitions were made of logs as well as the roof. It was all very rustic because these were poor people. Small log rooms were added onto the hut which protected the oven. Once the wood in the area was used up everything was transplanted to another location, which is why they were called ambulatory or flying glassworks. Some of the sites that have been explored indicate they were of simple construction. In 1621 the Count of Dabo authorized glassmakers to set up a glasswork in Donnersthal and named at the head of the enterprise in 1627 his major supervisor, Jean Jager. On May 16, 1628 Jean Stenger received from the Count, Georges Jean II de Veldenz of Petite Pierre and of the chapter of Neuviller (chapter house of the cathedral) permission to build a new glassworks at Oberhammerweyer, in the forests of Breitschloss. The glass manufactured had a potash base which led to it being called "Bohemian" glass or "Fern" glass. = The basic techniques of glassworking in today's facilities continues to resemble the methods used by the ancient glassworkers. Little by little, automation is beginning to take over leading to the disappearance of glassblowing by hand. The trade of glassmaking was essentially an itinerant one requiring specific skills from the construction of the oven to the composition of the chemical mix. Success led to clear, fine glass which the glassblower transformed into goblets, pharmaceutical glass or window glass. In glassblowing, the master sits on a bench with the blowpipe resting on rails. One end of the blowpipe has a ball of molten glass and he blows into the other end. Sometimes they alternated - standing or sitting. When he worked standing, it required two people. A "place" was composed of a "gather, blower, 1st and 2nd glassmaster". Their two aides and a "gamin" who helped to close the mold. Imperfections in the glass were caused by air bubbles, sand pebbles that did not melt in the fusion, striations due to insufficient mixing, and also ashes from the furnace. [from [email protected]] ==== KUNKEL Mailing List ==== To send a message to everyone, send it directly to: [email protected], or reply to an individual message and note "send to all recipients" or whatever your system has for this option. 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