Reijmyre Glassworks

Reijmyre: Swedish glassmaking from 1810

Reijmyre Glassworks is in Östergötland, Sweden. Johan Jacob Graver and Mattias Alexander von Ungern-Sternberg founded the works in 1810. Woodland and fuel supplies were important to its establishment. Its history includes industrially produced household glass and designs in coloured glass.

Early pressed glass in a museum collection

Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum holds a Reijmyre pressed-glass plate dated 1840 to 1850, inventory number NMK 133/1968. The museum links early pressed production to moulds purchased from Johan Wilhelm Bergström in 1836. Reijmyre therefore extends beyond the hand-blown vases of the twentieth century. Read about pressed glass before deciding how an object was made.

Monica Bratt: colour and form

Monica Bratt joined Reijmyre in 1937. The maker’s account highlights ruby-red glass and functional forms; her appointment is independently documented in the Swedish Women’s Biographical Dictionary. Some models remained in production long after their design. An old design alone therefore does not establish an early manufacturing date.

Vase B535 is a specific example in the maker’s model presentation. Reijmyre states that Bratt’s glass was numbered rather than signed. This concerns her work and must not become a rule that every Reijmyre object lacks a signature. An unsigned red vase is not thereby identified as Bratt.

What should be compared?

Our practical advice: compare the profile, dimensions, foot, rim and any model number with documented models. Distinguish a label attached to the object from a loose label or a seller’s statement. Transcribe its wording exactly. A factory can manufacture many designers’ work, and similar colours occur at different makers.

For a proposed B535 attribution, examine the entire form and documentation rather than colour alone. Check rim chips, scratches, cloudiness and possible alterations. Retain receipts and older photographs as part of the ownership history. This provides evidence without promising a particular collector’s value.

Next step

Browse OBA’s glass and crystal and compare the individual item’s stated maker, model and condition.

Sources

Finspång municipality: factory history; Nationalmuseum: NMK 133/1968; Reijmyre on Monica Bratt and vase B535; SKBL: Monica Elisabeth Bratt.