The History of Bird Ornaments
Although many of the glass bird ornaments you see today are manufactured in China, the craft's origins can be traced to the 1500s in Germany, where glassblowing became a cottage trade. Families developed one or two ornament types. Two German artisan families concentrated in creating bird ornaments: the Mullers and the Eichhorns. Does this Spark an idea?
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Pioneer Families
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The Muller and the Eichorn families produced bird ornaments over 13 generations in Lauscha, Germany. When the Russian occupation began, Heinz Muller relocated to Neustadt and established what became the modern-day Inge-Glas workshop in Germany.
Growth and Merger
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In their childhood, Klaus Muller-Blech and Birgit Eichhorn spent time in their families' foundries learning the craft. At a 1992 convention for antique ornaments in Reading, Pennsylvania, Klaus and Birgit met. They fell in love and got married, bringing their families together in this industry.
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Exportation History
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Around 1880, Inge-Glas's mold-blown birds were exported by F.W. Woolworth. In 1983, Inge-Glas established a distributorship with Old World Christmas, the leading distributor of mouth-blown figural glass ornaments. Ties were severed in 2004, when Old World began exporting factory-made ornaments from China. Still known today as Inge-Glas, it has more styles of birds than any other company and is still selling hand-blown ornaments. More than 700 antique bird molds grace its collection.
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