An entry in English to please the international audience.

Heya non-Swedes! It has come to my attention throught the crappy yet satisfying tracking tools of Blogspot that I have a couple of international visitors at least a few times a week. I've also noticed that some of you try to translate the posts using babelfish and similar software. I've used software like that and come to the conclusion that it's rarely worth it. There are usually one or two possible outcomes. One: the text makes less sense than Stephen Hawking on crack. Two: The text makes complete sense but wasn't interesting enough to spend those few precious minutes on that it took to find Babelfish, choose languages and copy/paste the text. In my experience (since I've never tried to translate it) this blog is regularly in the second category...So, here's a post that you don't have to bother translating.

Rudolf Jurnikl, 1962
Sklo Union, Rosice glassworks, Pattern No. 1045

I found this ashtray in a charity shop last week but I wasn't sure at first if it was a Sklo Union item, but as I got home I found it in "Hi Sklo - Lo Sklo" on page 81. According to Mark it's a very common ashtray that can be found in several different colours and that some of its appeal lies in the fact that it doesn't have any surface decoration. The shape itself is the "all important feature". I can't really argue with that, it is a very nice (yet artistically "safe", at least with contemporary eyes) piece that I'd rather use as a bowl than an ashtray. Then again I don't smoke, but I eat way to much candy. I can't really remember how much I paid for it but probably less than 2 Euro (my limit on pressed glass is 5 Euro/piece at the moment). Another typical thing about it is that it's in clear glass which is as usual here in Sweden as Marcus Newhall points out in his book.

Regarding how common certain items are; it has really struck me that some of the objects described in literature as "common" or "widespread" are very hard to find here while others that seems to be littering Ebay are virtually impossible to find. The "Candle Wax" vases, the "Abstract" range as well as other designs by Vladislav Urban can easily be found in almost every charity shop and garage sale across Sweden. I've been collecting Czech glass for about a year now and I'm pretty active in my search yet I haven't seen this particular ashtray before I stumbled upon it the other week. There isn't anything strange about that and I'm sure the literature is accurate in its descriptions, different demands in different countries but still an interesting notion.