Kosta Boda - 260 Years of Glassmaking

About Kosta Boda

Over the centuries, the artists and craftsmen of Kosta Boda have not only embodied the distinctive folkways of Scandinavian design, but helped define those traditions. When you buy and give Kosta Boda, you're buying and giving history - a lineage of great design and craftsmanship that has endured for more than 260 years.

When the USA was established Kosta Boda was nearly 50 years old. The original Kosta glassworks was born in 1742 as a partnership, the name an acronym from the partners' surnames: Anders KOskull and Georg Boglislaus STAël von Holstein. As Kosta grew and prospered, they helped grow an entire industry in Småland, Sweden's "Kingdom of Glass." In the 20th century, Kosta and neighboring glasshouses Åfors and Boda, were merged under a common owner. In 1976, they were renamed Kosta Boda.

What makes Kosta Boda so special is that they continually draw on their long history in developing exciting new ideas and methods in design and glass craftsmanship. Kosta Boda's designers and glassmakers are showcased in exhibitions and permanent private and public collections throughout the world.

About Glassmaking

When saying a piece of Kosta Boda is handmade, they mean it literally. While science and technology have improved the quality of materials, the recipes and some processes, glassmaking at Kosta Boda is both wonderfully old-fashioned and perpetually a new world-each design a collaborative work of art between our designer artists and our glassmaker artists.

The first hires at the new glassworks of Kosta in 1742 were skilled glassblowers, for it was their talents and experience that made all the difference in the end products. This is just as true today, where artisans and designers work side by side in the glassworks, cutting room, painting shop and engraving studio. (Think of the conceptual artist as the composer, the glassmaking artists as the musicians.)

Kosta Boda's creative collaborators are the wizards who transform molten liquid one moment into exquisite, ringing champagne flutes (Line), and the next into stunning contemporary vases and bowls (Attol) or, using secret techniques, adding galaxies of bubbles and colors to create designs with complex depths and textures. Still others skillfully hand paint bright motifs on finished glass (Tulipa).