Michaela Škodová, Štefan Chrastina
Glassmaking has been connected to the history of the Novohrad region since as early as the 17th century. In addition to the compulsory production line, glassmakers would, in their free time, create objects meeting their own aesthetic criteria. Such works comprised also glass eggs produced by various techniques, in various colours and in various sizes. They were made of clear or one-colour molten glass, by putting two or more layers of molten glass onto each other, or by technologies used for crackle glass. Of interest are also works from opal glass and eggs decorated by engraving or grinding. In glassmaking locations, these Easter eggs could have replaced classical Easter eggs. The eggs were given as a reward to boys who visited girls on Easter Monday to perform traditional rituals of whipping and splashing them with water. In several smelteries, glassmakers would submit eggs that they produced as so-called majsterštuk – their best work – to prove their advanced skills in order to be promoted and become glassmaking masters.