Old world cottage industry.
Chapter 1.
To follow this family business, we would have to start in the 14th century, 1350 A.d. give or take a few years, in the Black Forest of Germany, on the banks of the Rhine River, in a small glass hut attached to a barn which housed the family cow and also the family. Life was hard, part farmer, part rancher, part blacksmith, but not really, glass smith would be more accurate. Also part hunter, part businessman. In hindsight, the man, the husband, the father, was the founder of this family and the glass business that spun off from his efforts Would evolve into a new unimaginable art form of multiple dimensions and uses, and become world renown. Where he or his wife came from we will never know, but land and business records show he got married, raised his four children, biult his house, barn, glass hut, purchased equipment, paid taxes, buried two children and his wife in this area, and became a respected member of the community. His product was normal, run of the mill glassware, cups, bowls, window panes. Nothing special, other German glass pressers and blowers made similar products, but between them all they were well know throughout Germany and Europe for making glass. Until then, only Italy, specifically Venice, made glass, but the secret got out, and now the Germans were the new leaders.
