Albanian Glass
This Catalog consists of 10 years of dedication and work regarding the outputs of the Albanian Glass Factories. The collection of the artifacts started since 2004 and it is still an ongoing process. In this catalog are displayed the collection of the three existing factories at the time. Each of those factories had a variety of products which were produced according to the required capacities and models harmonized with the Albanian industrial market demands. The main glass production factories were the ones in Korça (the first of such type in Albania: 1954), Tirana and Kavaja. The collection displayed in this catalog covers 40 years production of this industry in Albania –since the beginning, 1954 until 1992 when all of them were closed down-. It possesses artistical, ethnographical and cultural values of the Albanian people. By collecting such glassy artifacts annually, slowly but surely the need to classify those products emerged. Both obstacles and strong positive emotions were endless while compiling such a “one of this kind” catalog. I’d like to share my gratitude for the full support I was given by my wife and my daughter throughout this work.
The enlargement of this collection year after year felt exactly like the process of putting mosaic pieces together, because emphasis was given on highlighting the importance of the esthetic value of this Heritage: initially, the objects might look ugly, unimportant and naïve, but, its complexity in the bigger picture is astonishingly speechless.
This catalog consists of 1600 glassy artifacts’ pictures, selected out of 6000 ones, with the intention to contribute in creating a fuller picture of this gigantic industry. The big variety of the objects fall into several categories according to their selection upon their forms and different types. Emphasis has been put mostly on the Glass Factory of Korça, my birth town, but both Factories of Tirana and Kavaja play a big role in this catalog, as well. These factories deserve more attention by me and by other Albanian Glass collectors, in the perspective of history and material.
Author
Mirgen Shamlli
