5
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eForum
Paulus, Johann Eder
home of the Eders, and Wilhelm Greiner had been a predecessor of Johann Georg Hahn
(see above) as a smelter.
18
Those are only examples demonstrating which connections may
have persuaded Johann Eder to go to Sweden.
The fact that he and his sons were present at Kosta as early as in 1741, the year before the
startup of the crystal glass production, makes us assume that they were already involved in
its implementation. The Swedish glass researcher Torbjörn Fogelberg writes about the early
times of Kosta:
„The factory at Kosta, the oldest crystal glassworks of Sweden, started in
summer 1742 with skilled German glassworkers. Already at the end of the year 1741, the
masters Johan Eder, Johan From, Christopher Schytz and Anewald Waltzer, as well as the
potash maker Johan Banholtz were present on the site. In the following years, 20 more Ger-
man glassmakers and engravers are to be found at Kosta. Unfortunately, there is no infor-
mation on their origins contained in the account books, which, by the way, are the only ones
preserved from the 18
th
century. Only a brief note is found that for the recruitment of the two
Germans named Berger and Hince 274 Daler were spent.“
19
The glassmaker Berger mentioned by Fogelberg is probably Andres Berger, documented at
Kosta from 1748 to 1750.
20
He could be identical to Andreas Berger, born at Schleichach in
1709.
21
This would correspond to the described relations to that glassworks in the Prince-
Bishopric of Würzburg.
Johann Eder and his sons are documented at Kosta from 1741 until 1744.
22
The eldest of
them, Joseph, worked there as a glass artisan. The two younger brothers, Johann and
Lorenz, were still recorded as assistant boys (
„avdragsgosse“
).
23
For 1742, it is reported that
Johann Eder (father) was offered an ox, worth 18 thalers, as a reward for his particular merits
in the establishment of the glassworks.
24
In April, the Eder family left Kosta for an unknown destination.
25
Possibly, they moved to
Limmared (approx. 170 km northwest of Kosta), where, in 1740, a glass factory had been
18
Cf. Georg P
AULUS
, Die Geschichte der Glashütte Irlbrunn. Schriftenreihe der Weltenburger Akade-
mie 2.30, Abensberg 2011.
19
F
OGELBERG
H
OLL
, Wanderungen, as above note 11, p. 15.
20
Ibid., p. 67.
21
Werner L
OIBL
, (Fabrik-)Schleichach. Die Geschichte der Glashütte im Steigerwald (1706
1869),
Rauhenebrach 2006, p. 511.
22
F
OGELBERG
H
OLL
, Wanderungen, as above note 11, p. 71, as well as: A
NDERBJÖRK
, as above note
11, p. 18, 143 and 222.
23
Friendly advice by Mr. Kent W
ILLIAMSSON
, Stockholm, Sweden.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
6
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eForum
Paulus, Johann Eder
established which was in competition against Kosta.
26
From a correspondence of 1748 be-
tween the tenants of the glassworks of Kosta and Limmared we learn that a glassmaker
named Eder, who had worked at Kosta before, had been hired out at Limmared. The tenant
Stael von
Holstein writes about his former glassmaker Eder that that „rogue“ pretended to be
going blind, but that he had come to know that Eder was, later on, employed at Limmared.
27
Unfortunately the correspondence does not tell when that happened.
Via Limmared, or a further interstation, Johann Eder, his wife and the two sons Joseph and
Lorenz ended up in Norway. The third son, Johann, obviously stayed in Sweden. This re-
minds us of Eder’s period in Portugal, where he left his nephews who continued to work in
the manufacture of glass, there. The son Johann can be found as a (Catholic) smelter, in
1755, at the glassworks of Sandö, existing since 1750.
28
There, he married the Swede Karin
Eriksdotter in 1757, and had two children, Margaretha and Johann Lorenz. At the baptism of
the latter, the German glass master Heinrich Balthasar Greiner and his wife Susanna Catha-
rina, née Eder, were godparents.
29
Unfortunately, nothing is known about their kinship with
the father of the child. The godfather could be identical to Heinrich Balthasar Greiner, who
worked as a glass artisan in the Swabian-Franconian Forest in 1734.
30
There, too, an Eder
daughter had married a Johann Peter Greiner, in 1754.
31
Johann Eder (son) died at Sandö
on 19
th
October 1761.
32
Norway
There is only very little information on Johann Eder’s stay in Norway. Thus, we do not know,
when he and his family arrived there. Anyhow, this must have been somewhen between
1744 and 1749. King Christian VI of Denmark and Norway had built a first crystal glassworks
with the help of glass specialists from England, Bohemia and Germany. That factory was
located at Nøstetangen, in the Norwegian Hokksund, about 60 km west of Oslo (At that time
called Christiania).
26
Cf. Karin Ö
STLUND
, Limmared 1740
1940, Ulricehamn 1940.
27
http://www.limmaredsglasmuseum.se/historia/rivalitet-mellan-bruken.html (download: 7
th
Nov. 2010).
28
Cf. Torbjörn F
OGELBERG
, Sandö Glasbruk 1750
1928. Ett bidrag till Ådalens industriella historia,
Malmö 1968.
29
Friendly advice by Mr. Kent W
ILLIAMSSON
, Stockholm, Sweden.
30
Ibid.
31
Friendly advice by Mr. Andreas K
OZLIK
, Backnang.
32
F
OGELBERG
H
OLL
, Wanderungen, as above note 11, p. 71, as well as F
OGELBERG
, Sandö, as
above note 28, p. 56, 68, 69.