Acta Musealia

Glass innovator Emanuel Tylčer and the so-called T-decorations

T-decors are specific sculptural motifs that were used to decorate utilitarian - drinking, table and decorative glass produced in Karolinka glassworks and later also in the associated plants of the Moravian Glassworks in Květná and Vrbno. The name of the decors was derived from the surname of Emanuel Tylcer (1905-1978) - the originator of three inventions for innovative glass refinement, which were published in Czechoslovakia in 1955, 1976 and 1978. During his career, Tylčer rose to senior technical positions and contributed to the rationalisation and modernisation of manual glass production. In his profession he managed to combine the activities of a technician, technologist, designer, developer, inventor and designer. Over 200 T-decors were created during Tylčer's time at the glassworks. The first one is documented in 1943 in the production documentation taken over by the Museum of the Wallachia Region from the closed glassworks. More than half of the decorative motifs were created between 1966 and 1978, when professional designers also participated in the creation of the decorations. The T-decors were mainly made with the help of specially adapted optical preforms, shaping knives or rotating decorative rosettes. Tylcher's innovations imbued utilitarian glass with a unique design with distinctive haptic and optical qualities, while the ornament impressed into the malleable glass could resemble motifs created by grinding, optical preforms or pressing. Utility glass with T-decors was successfully promoted on foreign markets, which led to Emanuel Tylčer's cooperation with Skloexport.

Keywords: utility glass, innovation of metallurgical forming, S. Reich a spol., Českomoravské sklárny, a. s., Moravské sklárny, n. p., Karolinina hut, Karolinka, Květná, Skloexport, M. Matoušek, A. Švec