Sweden's oldest operating glassworks

Kosta Boda and Orrefors are among the world's leading brands in glass and glass art. Since 1742, the glassblowers have mastered the liquid glass mass and refined the craft for several generations at Kosta Glasbruk. Come into the cabin and experience glassblowing up close.

Technology and feeling have been refined in the heart of Småland's forests for generations. Kosta Boda glass is personal, fully expressed, curious and confident. In the glow from the ovens, you have the opportunity to follow the manufacture of our products. From melting the glass mass to glass blowing, grinding and painting. At our glass factory, we also produce glass under the Orrefors brand.

Kosta glassworks was founded as early as 1742 and is the oldest manually operating glassworks in Sweden. The country road between Stockholm and Karlskrona, Kungsvägen, at that time passed by Dåvedshult and the cabin was built there. Good resources of forest raw materials have made the area a center for the glass industry in Sweden. The major expansion only came in the period 1870 to 1900, but the establishment of Kosta is considered to have been the starting point for industry in the area.

The cabin interior is from the beginning of the 20th century. Around the oven in the middle you can see the different work teams, from foremen to cabin boys.
It is the country's oldest mill in operation. Around the cabin, during the latter part of the 18th century, residences for the glassblowers, the mill mansion and economic buildings were built. In the 1870s and thirty years later, both the mill and society grew strongly. Around the turn of the century in 1900, Kosta Glasbruk owned, in addition to large country estates, a railway, a large mechanical workshop and a steam sawmill. The mill was built in 1742, and today's glass cabins date from 1902 and 1977.

Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Staël von Holstein

The companions Anders Koskull and Georg Bogislaus Staël von Holstein, governors of Kronoberg and Kalmar counties, each contributed a syllable to the name Kosta. They started in the summer of 1742 blowing window glass, bottles and simple types of glass at the Dåvedshult homestead. With united forces, the glass mill was built up. The time had come to strengthen the country's weak business sector. The need for domestic glass production was great.
The owners recruited professional glassblowers who were responsible for the glass production. The first four masters, Johan Eder, Johan Thomas Fromm, Christopher Scheutz and Anewald Waltzer, were all Germans. Professional skill and knowledge were required of the glassblowers to manufacture the most diverse products, from window glass and packaging glass to bowls and drinking vessels. During the years 1756−1790, Johan Friedrich Wickenberg was at the head of the mill. The ovens were rebuilt. The mill's holdings were expanded and he bought a number of farms and built up a substantial land and forest property. Everything to secure the important wood supply.