Leopold Blaschka (27 May 1822 – 3 July 1895) and his son Rudolf Blaschka (17 June 1857 – 1 May 1939) were glass artists from Bohemia, Czechia. They were known for their production of biological and botanical models, including glass sea creatures and Harvard University's Glass Flowers.
Family background The Blaschka family's roots trace to Josephthal in Erzgebirge, Bohemia, a region known for processing glass, metals, and gems. Members of the Blaschka family worked in Venice, Bohemia, and Germany. Leopold referred to this history in an 1889 letter to Mary Lee Ware:
Many people think that we have some secret apparatus by which we can squeeze glass suddenly into these forms, but it is not so. We have the touch. My son Rudolf has more than I have because he is my son and the touch increases in every generation. The only way to become a glass modeler of skill, I have often said to people, is to get a good great-grandfather who loved glass; then he is to have a son with like tastes; he is to be your grandfather. He in turn will have a son who must, as your father, be passionately fond of glass. You, as his son, can then try your hand, and it is your own fault if you do not succeed. But, if you do not have such ancestors, it is not your fault. Leopold was born in Český Dub, Bohemia, one of the three sons of Joseph Blaschke. Leopold himself would later Latinize the family name to Blaschka. He and his son were native to the Bohemian Czech-German borderland. Leopold was apprenticed to a goldsmith and gem cutter in Turnov, a town in the Liberec Region of today's Czech Republic. He then joined the family business which produced glass ornaments and glass eyes. Leopold developed a technique which he termed "glass-spinning" which permitted the construction of highly precise and detailed works in glass. He soon began to focus the business on manufacturing glass eyes. In 1846, Leopold married Caroline Zimmermann, and within four years their son Josef Augustin Blaschka was born. Caroline and Josef both died of cholera in 1850. A year later, Leopold's father died. Leopold "sought consolation in the natural world, sketching the plants in the countryside around his home."
Glass marine invertebrates
In 1853, Leopold travelled to the United States. While en route, the ship was becalmed for a fortnight due to no trade winds. During this time, Leopold studied and sketched local marine invertebrates, the glass-like transparency of their bodies intriguing him. He wrote:
It is a beautiful night in May. Hopefully, we look out over the darkness of the sea, which is as smooth as a mirror; there emerges all around in various places a flash like bundle of light beams, as if it is surrounded by thousands of sparks, that form true bundles of fire and of other bright lighting spots, and the seemingly mirrored stars. There emerges close before us a small spot in a sharp greenish light, which becomes ever larger and larger and finally becomes a bright shining sunlike figure. On his return to Český Dub, Leopold focused on producing glass eyes, costume ornaments, lab equipment, and other goods and specialty items whose production was expected of master lampworkers. He married his second wife, Caroline Riegel, in 1854. In his free time, he created glass models of plants. These would eventually become the basis of the Ware Collection of Blaschka Glass Models of Plants, also known as the Glass Flowers, which were collected many years later. During this period, Blaschka did not make any money producing the models. Eventually, however, the models attracted the attention of Prince Camille de Rohan, who arranged to meet with Leopold at Sychrov Castle in 1857. Prince Camille, an enthusiast of natural sciences, commissioned Leopold to craft 100 glass orchids for his private collection. In 1862, "the prince exhibited about 100 models of orchids and other exotic plants, which he displayed on two artificial tree trunks in his palace in Prague." This royal commission brought Blaschka's craft to the attention of Professor Ludwig Reichenbach, then director of the Natural History Museum in Dresden.
Professor Reichenbach admired the botanical models and convinced Leopold to try creating glass models of marine invertebrates. In the nineteenth century, the dominant method of displaying preserved marine invertebrates was wet-preservation, which involved taking a live specimen and placing it in a sealed jar, usually filled with alcohol. This killed the specimen and frequently decomposed the specimens beyond recognition. Initially, the designs for these were based on drawings in books, but Leopold was soon able to use his earlier drawings to produce models of other species. His reputation spread quickly. Demand for the models pushed Leopold to further the training of his son and apprentice, Rudolf Blaschka. A year after the success of the glass sea anemones, the family moved to Dresden to give young Rudolf better educational opportunities.
Belgium In 1886, Edouard Van Beneden, founder of the Institute of Zoology, ordered 77 Blaschka models in order to illustrate zoology lessons. Some of these models are still on display at Treasure in the Aquarium-Museum in Liège.
Contact with Harvard
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