LOBMEYR GLAS: 200 YEARS YOUNG. CONGRATULATIONS.

Fragile only at first glance

The finest glass and elegant chandeliers: yes, this is art. But it can’t go away.

For all those who care about the content

Should you invest a small fortune to buy the finest glass at Lobmeyr Vienna? Glasses are also available at IKEA, Habitat and on the first floor of all large furniture stores at a reasonable price.

Anyone who buys from Lobmeyr appreciates the contents in the glass and the aesthetics of the glass. In the land of sake, Lobmeyr’s fine glasses sell very well. Because the often very delicate taste components of sake of the best provenance can be tasted, smelled and enjoyed excellently from a fine Lobmeyr glass.

The same applies to any other content, whether white wine or red wine, champagne or whiskey. The finer the drink, the greater the pleasure from a glass such as those produced by Lobmeyr.

Glass engraving © Lobmeyr

200 years young

The Lobmeyr company is celebrating its 200th anniversary this year. Amazing in a world characterized by standardization and price competition. In its anniversary year, the company offers 877 different glass products. Any McKinsey consultant would immediately see this as an area for business optimization and put the youngest assistant in charge of harvesting this “low hanging fruit”.

Instead, Lobmeyr is happy about the good sales markets in Europe, the USA and Asia and treats the 30 employees, who still blow the fine glass in workshops in the Czech Republic and then refine it in Salesianergasse in Vienna with cutting and engraving as well as many other fine details, to a new building in Vienna.

The reason: Lobmeyr has been commissioning excellent designers and outstanding artists to create glass series and chandeliers ever since it was founded.

Walking through the store at Kärntnergasse 26 in Vienna, you often find yourself admiring a particularly successful, seemingly modern design, only to realize that it was designed many decades ago. Good style is timeless – this is particularly true at Lobmeyr.

Bronze series by Josef Hoffmann, 1912 © Lobmeyr

Favorite of the star chefs

Whether Thomas Keller in his restaurant The French Laundry in Napa Valley or Sota Atsumi in his restaurant Maison Sota Atsumi in Paris, many of the world’s best chefs are among those congratulating the company on its anniversary, because their dessert creations and other delicacies are shown to their best advantage in a glass from Lobmeyr.

Easy to understand, because the mere sight of a filigree glass from Lobmeyr makes our hearts beat faster. Aesthetes simply can’t help themselves and try to treat their eyes to a feast for the eyes at every possible moment.

If there are people in your circle of friends or family who value refinement and style, you’ve basically already found a Christmas present.

Lobmeyr’s online store works excellently, we have already tried it out several times. However, you should be a little quick, as many glasses, carafes and other glass treasures are only produced after an order has been placed.

Drinking set no. 267 Alpha water cup © Mark Pock, Lobmeyr

Delete the ratio

Of course, Lobmeyr glasses are not suitable for the dishwasher and should be dried carefully when empty. But it is by no means the case that thin glass is particularly fragile.

Hand-blown glasses from Lobmeyr, which are produced as so-called muslin glasses, have a glass thickness of just 0.7 – 1.1 millimeters. The glass goblets are blown in molds made of beech wood. The steam that develops between the wooden mold and the hot glass gives the glass a special shine. The special production process also gives the glass a relatively high degree of elasticity and makes it more robust than you would ever expect from this piece of glass.

Have a good flight

There are stores selling Lobmeyr glass all over the world. Lobmeyr glass is also available in Kyiv, even if the store there is currently selling more glasses decorated with the most important symbols of Ukraine, such as the sunflower, the Ukrainian flag and important Ukrainian works of art. In times of war, this is all too understandable and we would like nothing more than for the people of this country to be able to reach for Lobmeyr glasses again without the fear and worry of war.

If you want to shop directly in Vienna and take your glasses in your hand luggage outside the Schengen area on the plane, you will receive a radiant farewell greeting from Lobmeyr in the departure hall. The Schloss Hof chandeliers were installed there in 2022.

The baroque chandeliers, a design by Johann Lucas von Hildebrand from 1720, fit perfectly into the newly renovated, minimalist building from the 1950s and enchant the farewell to the city on the Danube. If you would like to get an impression of how a Schloss Hof chandelier is created, take a look here.

CALISSONS WITH PETALS FROM LÜBECK

Lobmeyr chandeliers can be found in the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as we reported a few years ago, and in concert halls, hotels and embassies around the world. Naturally, Lobmeyr glass is also used at state banquets in the Vienna Hofburg.

The trophies of humanity

Glasses, goblets and other vessels often play a decisive role. As in the opera Tristan and Isolde, they can contain a love potion or a death potion. Depending on who passes the glass.

For Lobmeyr’s 200th anniversary, there is therefore a very special set of cups: The Cups of Humanity.

They were created by Swiss designer Nives Widauer. She has dedicated each of the seven cups to a character trait that she considers to be the most important characteristics of a future-oriented, sustainable and humane society: Courage, respect, responsibility, empathy, curiosity, mindfulness and resilience.

The engravings on these beautiful goblets, which look both modern and traditional at the same time, are based on human organs.

We drink to that. Happy Birthday Lobmeyr!