Glass Circle trip to Belgium and Germany
17-21 September 2010
by Robin Wilson
This trip was arranged to visit the centre of glass making in Wallonia in Belgium and to see the wonderful collections of glass in the local museums and in nearby Cologne.
Our base was in the centre of the lovely city of Liege and we arrived during the Wallonia Festival. On the afternoon of our arrival we were entertained by a full orchestra performing a concert in the main square for the benefit of passers-by.
Saturday saw an early start with three stops and four museums on the agenda. We followed the river Meuse along which the industrial heart of Wallonia was built. The first short stop was at Huy to see the treasury at the Collegiale de Notre Dame.
The collection of religious reliques was stunning, particularly the four very ornate 12th and 13th century shrines to saints Domitien, Mengold and Marc and the Virgin Mary made of silver, enamel, copper and brass.
It was then on to Charleroi to see the glass collection at Bois du Cazier, the site of a former coal mine, which was clearly evidenced with the pit-head machinery still in place. The museum was impressive and covered Belgian glass from the 17th century to modern times. The collection covered the whole of the first floor of the museum and gave us a taste of the importance of glass making to this region.
In another building there was an exhibition of Friggers, i.e. items made by the glass blowers in their spare time, from the 19th and 20th centuries. My attention was particularly drawn to some miniature colour twist wine glasses some 4 or 5 cms tall made by Dieudonne Masson, in the 19th century. He was a glass maker at Val St Lambert.
There was also an excellent bookshop with plenty of glass interest, one book in particular on glass and crystal in Wallonia had an English edition. On reading this later I was interested to come across the following statement in respect of the prominent Namur glassmaker, Sebastien Zoude. He 'set earnestly to work attempting to discover the secret of producing lead or crystal glass. It was about 1761 that Zoude, by a combination of trial and error and espionage, managed to discover the crystal formula which had been so jealously guarded by the English. He became the first on the Continent to sell a crystal at a price which undercut the imported product by nearly 30%'.
After admiring the glass we had an excellent lunch in the museum's restaurant before embarking back on the coach for the trip to Namur. Our first visit here was to the Groesbeeck de Croix Museum situated in a plush 18th century town house. The mansion was furnished as a mansion should be, but included a good collection of Belgian glass in different parts of the building. Glass from the defunct Voneche factory, which used to be situated close to Namur, was much in evidence and their collection of glass clocks which was dotted throughout the house must be the most significant of its kind.
Following this gem we walked the short distance to the Archaeological Museum with its large collection of Roman glass over two floors. Our visit was accompanied by a loud drum band in the street below which was part of Namur's Wallonia festivaL Many members were also distracted by the antique glass shop next door which was an Aladdin's cave of goodies.
I particularly liked a Voneche tumbler with an encased flower backed with gold leaf examples of which we had previously seen in the Groesbeeck de Croix museum and were to see again in the Grand Curtius museum.
Sunday was entirely taken up with the trip to Cologne across the border in Germany. Cologne was another important centre for glass and the two museums housed impressive collections. The first museum was the Angewandte Kunst, or Applied Art Museum. It was, naturally, very strong on German glass from 16th to 20th centuries, but also included medieval Syrian glass, some 18th century English pieces and beautiful examples of art nouveau, particularly Galle (fig.5).
It is difficult to pick out individual items but a mid-16th century waldglas beaker, sadly with a damaged bowl, was beautiful (fig.3). I also enjoyed a pokal with a wavy bowl enamelled in gold and other colours, dated to 1591. My German is virtually non-existent but I think it celebrated the marriage of the Herzog Friedrich Wilhelm 1 von Sachsen to Anna Maria, daughter of the Pfalzgrafen Philipp Ludwig in 1591 (fig.4).
Lunch was in the museum restaurant before the short walk across the main square to the Romishe-Germanishes Museum. Here there was the most amazing collection of Roman and Rhenish glass. It seemed that everywhere one went and round every corner was another cabinet full of glass. From funerary urns to a cage cup (fig.6), the collection was extraordinary. After tearing oneself away from this museum there was time for a coffee or ice-cream at a pavement cafe and a quick visit to the Dom to see the stained glass windows before the return coach journey.
Monday, the final full day, brought a pleasant surprise. The Val St Lambert factory which had been closed had re-opened and so our morning was taken up with a visit to the factory.
In its heyday it employed over 2,000 people but now this is down to a mere 50-60. However, we were treated to a display of glass blowing by a very experienced glass blower and a tour of the shop floor.
After the tour we visited their museum which of course held a wonderful collection from throughout the life of the factory, The green glass organ with flashing lights was very amusing and the glass sculpture, about 2m 20cm tall made of thousands of pieces of glass carefully stuck together was fairly remarkable.
It was then back to Liege for lunch following which we had the much anticipated visit to the Grand Curtius Museum. Here we had the benefit of an introductory tour of the glass collection by the curator. Once again we had the pleasure of viewing an astonishing array of glass from Roman to modern, including a number of English 18th century drinking glasses. A selection of 18th century glass made in Liege was naturally on show and a good collection of Val St Lambert.
It just remained the following morning to say our goodbyes before making the return journey to the UK although three of us spent the morning in Liege and took the opportunity to visit the cathedral followed by a guided tour of the remains of a Roman villa and two previous cathedrals of Liege which lay together underneath the main square in the centre of the town.
Our thanks to John Smith for organising a memorable trip with its sumptuous collections of glass, good food and very good company.
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