Miroslav Havel (26 May 1922 – 5 September 2008) was the chief designer for

Waterford Crystal Waterford Crystal is an Irish manufacturer of crystal glassware, especially cut glass products. It is named after the city of Waterford in Ireland. In January 2009, the main Waterford Crystal manufacturing base on the edge of Waterford was cl ...

. Born in

Držkov Držkov () is a municipality and village in Jablonec nad Nisou District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The ...

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

, he trained as a glass craftsman in

Železný Brod Železný Brod (; ) is a town in Jablonec nad Nisou District in the Liberec Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,000 inhabitants. The Trávníky district of the town has well preserved folk architecture and is protected as a Cultural monume ...

and in the Academy of Art and Industrial Design ( "Umprum") in Prague. During his study at Umprum, he interned in a glass factory in

Světlá nad Sázavou Světlá nad Sázavou (; ) is a town in Havlíčkův Brod District in the Vysočina Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 6,400 inhabitants. It is known for a large women's prison. Administrative division Světlá nad Sázavou consists of 15 ...

owned by Karel Bacik. Bacik, who was losing control of his business as the Communist takeover progressed, migrated to

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, made plans to set up a glass factory there, and in 1947 sent for Havel to supervise the technical aspects of the factory.Brian F. Havel, ''Maestro of Crystal'', Currach Press, 2005 There had been a glassmaking factory in Waterford in the previous century, but as nothing was left of that tradition, Havel created a production process from scratch, recruited skilled craftspeople from traditional glassmaking areas of Europe, set up training and apprenticeship programmes for Irish personnel, and designed new product ranges. In these product ranges, Havel attempted to reestablish continuity with the glassmaking tradition of Waterford City (Havel visited the

National Museum A national museum can be a museum maintained and funded by a national government. In many countries it denotes a museum run by the central government, while other museums are run by regional or local governments. In the United States, most nati ...

to make detailed drawings of their collection of original Waterford glass), while serving the needs of contemporary consumers and working within the constraints of modern factory production.

References

1922 births 2008 deaths People from Jablonec nad Nisou District Glass artists Czechoslovak emigrants to Ireland {{Glass-art-stub