About Rautis

Jan Hajna was the first glass bead blower to come to Poniklá from Jablonec nad Nisou. At first, he blew glass beads made of black glass, which were used to make jewellery. When his neighbours in Poniklá saw how profitable his new craft was, they quickly replaced the looms in their mountain cottages with blowing tables and learned the glass bead making craft from him.

Stanislav Horna and his family settled in Poniklá and founded the first glass bead manufacturing company in the village. Glass bead Christmas ornaments were gradually added to the company’s product portfolio and quickly became popular after World War I. In 1930, Stanislav handed over the company to his son, Otto, who added metal jewellery
production to the company’s portfolio. During this period, blown glass beads and Christmas ornaments were exported to countries around the world. Jablonec nad Nisou and its export companies were the heart of the jewellery trade.

After the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, Horna´s company was nationalized and the smaller workshops in Poniklá were incorporated into a newly established national company called Glass Jewellery, whose name was later changed to Železny Brod Glass. The production of glass bead ornaments in Poniklá continued and Otto Horna worked in his former company as the director while his wife was employed as a worker.

Glass bead production continued without interruption in Poniklá. It was incorporated into the Glass Jewellery/Železny Brod Glass company as plant no. 3. In 1960, the Poniklá plant had 250 employees, including more than 200 home-based workers. There were also glass bead blowers working in Janův Důl, Lučany nad Nisou and Dolní Maxov. Two other independent glass bead ornament manufacturers operated in Poniklá at that time – Jindřich Holubec and Václav Šír.

In 1989, glass bead ornament production in Poniklá was part of plant no. 3 of the Železny Brod Glass company. Other plant no. 3 facilities produced rhinestone jewellery, glass eyes, lighting fixtures and devotionals. The plant also included a metal fabrication facility and a recreation centre. In 1990, plant no. 3 was transformed into a state enterprise called Astir. Bohuslav Kulhavý became the director. He later became the owner of the Rautis company.

Viable operations were separated from the state enterprise Astir and spun off as independent companies. In December 1995, the company Rautis, a.s. was registered in the Commercial Register as a producer of glass bead Christmas ornaments in Poniklá and Lučany nad Nisou.

The 1990s marked a golden “American” era of glass bead ornaments that came to an end after 2001 due to the US financial crisis. There was a sudden and dramatic drop in orders and Rautis was considered financially dead. The entry of Mark Kulhavý into the company management, and the courage to make radical decisions with a single objective – to preserve production in Poniklá, where it had begun over 100 years ago – were important milestones.

Rautis opened a company store with a creative workshop in Poniklá and began holding tours of its manufacturing facility. In our first year of operation, we welcomed approximately 300 visitors.

Glass bead ornaments are making a huge comeback on Czech Christmas trees. Since 2004, more than 156,000 people have taken a tour of our manufacturing facility. We have become one of the regular tourist attractions in the area and we work with schools, museums and galleries. We strive to keep our ornaments up to date and we collaborate with well-known designers to create new collections. In 2020, our craft was inscribed in the UNESCO List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, which we view as a tribute to all glass bead blowers and a great commitment as we look to the future.