Pallme-König (Elizabethhütte)
The Pallme glassworks was first established in Steinschonau, Austria, in approximately 1786 by Ignaz Pallme-Konig. In the 1880s and 1890s the firm of Ignaz Pallme-Konig was making and exporting high quality engraved glass and chandeliers. Around the turn of the century they merged with Wilhelm Habel's Elizabethhutte glassworks near Teplitz and became known as "Glasfabrik Elisabeth, Pallme-Konig and Habel".
During the Art Nouveau period, this glass company produced high quality iridized glass, and its finest production was the type illustrated on the left. Hot glass trails were wound around the iridized glass forming a network, and the piece was then blown into a mold so that the trails were pressed into the glass.
The output from the Elizabethhutte was, and still is, very highly regarded in Austria. Production of this beautiful, highly specialised type of design continued until the early 1920's. Pallme-Konig vases often have cuts at the top and pieces folded down in a way which emphasis the once-molten nature of the glass.
There were several factories with the Pallme-Konig name and many of them continued to produce glass until the industry was nationalised after the end of the War in Europe (1945). Pallme-Konig and Habel glass is not usually signed, and does not normally have a pontil mark. The whole vase, with its molten trails on the surface, was normally blown into a mold and then finished from the top.
Pallme Konig and Habel glass is often confused with Loetz glass, the major Austrian glass maker of the Art Nouveau period. Loetz also made iridized glass vases and bowls with trails of glass around the outside. Very often these kinds of Loetz trails are finer, and are not necessarily in a contrasting color to the vase itself. Loetz also made glass with trails that have been flattened and smoothed to the surface of the vase, again distinctly different from Pallme Konig and Habel. Similar types of glass were made by other Austrian glassworks at that time.
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The Pallme family was large. Our understanding is they started to add descriptors after their name to identify the branch of the family. Franz Josef Pallme was born about 1715. His family became know as Pallme-Pech (pitch). Franz Josef Pallme was in engaged in both the glass industry and the manufacturing of pitch, ergo the name.
His son Ignaz (I) Pallme-Pech was born in 1748. We then see the name the name change to Ignaz (I) Pallme-Konig (king). Ignaz was reported to be a highly respected engraver and merchant. He was supposedly instrumental in establishing a viable export business for the firm.
In 1776 Ignaz (I) Pallme-Konig had a son which he named Ignaz (II) Pallme-Konig. Ignaz (II) followed in his father footsteps by becoming a glass engraver who over his lifetime received several awards as an engraver and businessman. He was also the director of the Engraver Guild in Kamenicky Senov.
Ignaz (II) Pallme-Konig had three sons: Ignaz (III) born in 1805, Franz was born in 1812 and Josef Karl in 1818.
Ignaz (III) Palme-Konig married Pauline Schmidt and move to Amsterdam. There is established a warehouse to distribute the Konig Firm's goods.
Franz Pallme-Konig married Thersia Herzog the daughter of a wealthy merchant form Kamenicky Senov. Franz and Josef Karl Pallme-Konig managed the firm together until Josef Karl left the family business to join Ullmann. Ignaz Ullmann worked in the studio of Lammel-Halzel a glass refinery (finisher).
Franz Pallme-Konig was has been accredit for being one of the first exporter to develop a system of catalog and price lists for his foreign agents. He concentrated his efforts on trade with Holland, England, Germany and Russia. Franz was supposedly successful in both the glass business and real estate. He left a sizable estate to his three sons Franz II, Gustav and Adolf.
Franz (II) Pallme-Konig married Marie Krause, the daughter of Franz Krause another glass merchant. The had three children: Franz (III), Margarethe and Paul.
Gustav Pallme-Konig moved to South America. He died in Brazil in 1880.
Adolf Pallme-Konig Married Eugenie Conrath. Adolf was a shareholder in his Great Grandfather’s firm Ignaz Pallme-Konig Co. Upon his Adolf (I) death, his son Adolf (II) Pallme-Konig inherited his father’s holdings including his father’s share of Ignaz Pallme-Konig Co. At the time of Adolf (II) inheritance the firm was producing luxury engraved glass, a Magnificent chandeliers.
Josef Karl Pallme-Konig Franz brother, had four sons: Theodor, Emil, Josef and Heinrich. Theodor Pallme-Konig became a cloth merchant and move to London. Josef Pallme-Konig and Emil Pallme-Konig started their own firm “Josef Pallme-Konig Co.” Theodor returned from London and managed the firm’s exports and his brother Josef ran the factory. Heinrich move to Palermo, then returned for a short time before moving to Dresden.
As one cans the Pallme-Konig family was prolific and by 1900 Bohemian glass industry was saturated with Pallme and Pallme-Konig firms producing luxury glass and chandeliers.
The most significant to the collector was that of Elisabethhutee (Elisabeth house). Elisabethhutte was founded by Wilhelm Habel in 1889, in the coal basin in Kosten, near Teplice. He name the works after his dead mother who passed the year before glasshouse start. His friends Josef and Theodor Pallme-Konig assisted Wilhelm Habel in building his glasshouse. At first Elisabethhutee was producing raw material for the Pallme-Konig chandelier factory. Latter Josef and Theodor built two more glass house near Kosten. By 1900 Elisabethhutte was producing namely Art Glass in the Art Nouveau style. Of which most pieces were iridized and having contrasting colored glass threading applied in a random manner.
Elisabethhutte officially merged with Pallme-Konig in 1907, forming the company Glasfabrik Elisabeth, Pallme-Konig and Habel. Theodor Pallme-Konig died in 1912 and Josef Pallme-Konig died in 1918. Theodor’s son Theodor (II) Palme-Konig took control of Elilsabethhutte. In 1920 Elisabethhutte merged with the refiner Ignaz Grossman’s Sons and the new firm known as Vereinigte Glashuttenwerk Pallme-Konig & Habel, Ig. Grossmann Sohn B.m.b.H. At that time Elisabethhutte lost is identity as a producer of Art Glass. It produced raw materials for refining (finishing) in Kamenidky Senov and Novy Bor. The various Pallme-Konig firms continued to produce glass until they were nationalized at the end of World War I.
