The production of Gablonzer glass bead jewelry has a long tradition. Historiography began around 1550 in Gablonz / Sudetenland (today's Czech Republic) and developed in connection with the jewelry and glass industries. At that time, the first glassworks and glass grinding workshops were established. In the countless family businesses in Gablonz, the beads were blown out of glass tubes in front of a small oil lamp with bellows reinforcement, or later with a kind of Bunsen burner. This is how the “freehand beads” were created, which were inflated by hand without any shaping aids. Later, the glass tubes, again in front of the "lamp", were blown up to form "form beads" using a bead-forming machine developed in this region. Father and grandfather were usually responsible for inflating the beads. Mother and grandmother's hard-working hands then strung this bead material on wire into specific formations. Gablonz Christmas tree decorations are now highly valued among connoisseurs and are considered a sought-after collector's item.