BROKIS is the brainchild of successful Czech entrepreneur Jan Rabell. In 2006, he founded the brand as a platform to revitalize and elevate Bohemian glassmaking to new heights and preserve generations of knowledge and craftsmanship.
Nearly ten years prior, in 1997, he acquired the ailing Janštejn Glassworks, which was established at the start of the 19th century approximately140 kilometres southeast of Prague.
Demand for traditional products had declined significantly, many of the glassmakers were growing old and leaving, and time-honoured technologies and techniques were at risk of being lost. Mr. Rabell’s vision was to restore the factory to its former prestige and ensure that the ages-old Bohemian glassmaking tradition endured into the 21st century.
With BROKIS, Jan Rabell created a lighting brand offering entirely different products than those previously produced at Janštejn Glassworks. Several new Italian-style furnaces were built, and production techniques were refined. Some, such as grinding and glass painting, were discontinued, and others were revived, like glassblowing using optic moulds and traditional hotshop techniques.
Original and nearly forgotten formulas for manufacturing coloured glass were reinstated and are now characteristic of the BROKIS brand.
Unesco
In 2023, handmade glass was inscribed in UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. From the very inception of the BROKIS brand, its defining mark has been superior quality in glass artisanry and manufacturing.
For several centuries, Bohemian glassmaking has been synonymous with unsurpassed quality and beauty. Today, it is an inseparable part of the cultural legacy of the Czech nation, and we are thrilled that it has been recognized on a global level by UNESCO as a significant manifestation of humanity’s living heritage.
