JOSEF RINDSKOPF'S SOHNE (CO.) (1890-1927)

Josef Rindskopf was born in 1829 in Teplitz in Bohemia, which was at that time part of the Austrian Empire. It became part of Czechoslovakia after 1918, and the name of the town changed to Teplice. In the middle of the 19th century he went to America, where he met and married Fanny Phillips of New York, bringing her back to Teplitz sometime around the 1850s or 1860s. Teplitz was a famous spa town and there were a number of glass factories in the surrounding area at that time. Josef Rindskopf's father, Beer Rindskopf (1799-1876), had a large family, and in 1876 Josef Rindskopf and some of his brothers co-owned a glass company called Bruder Rindskopf.

A year after Josef's death in 1890, four of Josef's sons - Sidney, Albert, Edwin and Sherman, established a new glass company called Josef Rindskopf's Sohne A.G. (Josef Rindskopf's Sons) at Kosten. Josef's American interest can be seen in the names of his sons, and about 100 or so years ago, almost all of the family members changed their name to Riethof - 'Rindskopf' actually means 'cowshead'! In the 1890s, factories at Dux and Tischau (both near Teplitz) were added, the one at Dux producing mainly blanks that were sent to other factories for decoration. But it was not long before all Rindskopf's glass was finished at their own factories - specialist equipment was brought in to enable etching, painting, sandblasting etc to be done on site. Iridescent art glass, crackle glass and frosted items were made at Dux, and Tischau was producing the popular art nouveau styled iridescent art glass, much of it for export. There was a serious fire in the Kosten factory in 1903, which resulted in a new, fully-equipped factory being built for mass production, and all their iron moulds were also produced in-house. By the early 1930s, financial constraints meant that the name of Rindskopf was lost as the company was taken over by Inwald, although the family remained involved. Rindskopf glass was even represented at Hatton Gardens in London before the 2nd World War, but the company became increasingly involved in the mass-produced market, and are still in operation today under the name of Bohemia Crystal.