Art glass: Glass from carnival glass to glass insulators in Argentina

Berazategui- Buenos Aires, the city of Glass.

Part one.

For nearly two centuries Argentina was one of Latin America’s most industrialized countries together with Brazil and Mexico. The industries within the country were strategically located in the fluvial littoral coast covering the provinces of Santa Fe, a bit of Cordoba and specially Buenos Aires. Within the province of Buenos Aires, the industrial pole was located in what’s known as the Southern Greater Buenos Aires, running from the city of Avellaneda to Quilmes. This area grew and developed greatly until the late 70s and early 90s when it’s light began to go off. It became cheaper to import than to produce in the country; hence the thousands of industries within the area began to close their doors. And what up till then was a trademark industry became nothing but a good memory. Notwithstanding that, some industries remained, some others that had shut down their production were re opened by their workers.

It’s important to point out the historical, cultural and social value of the Argentine Glass industry. Located in Berazategui in the southern area of the Grater Buenos Aires, this industry developed outstandingly throughout the late 1880s up to the present, producing avant-garde items artistically and massively too. To illustrate the importance and meaning of our words it’s Cristales Rigolleau’s legacy in terms of production and history to which we’ re going to refer as follows.

Back in 1882 there was not even one company that produced glass jars in the country, and the importation terms were guided by extremely high standards, making it impossible to achieve to small and medium conserve producers and many other industries in need of these sort of containers. There had been small and medium glass items producers who had gone bankruptcy, leaving many warehouses abandoned including all the machinery left behind. It was Leon Rigolleau the man of the hour. He bought all those warehouses including the machines and leftovers, and began to produce glass jars in a location nearby downtown BA. The company was christened La Nacional- the National-. Soon they expanded as Mr. Rigolleau’s nephew Gastón Fourvel Rigolleau enters the business. The foremost important decision taken by the Rigolleau family, a turning point within the national glass industry, was to bring from France and Belgium specialized glass artisans to work with them. In 1908 Cristalerias Rigolleau SA relocates in Berazategui, preserving the downtown building as headquarter offices. It was then when a gifted Belgium artisan arrived to Argentina to work at Rigolleau. Mr J.L. Humier was Rigolleau’s Artisan in chief. This was a family craft, so soon, several members of the Humier family were to be running the day to day work at Rigolleau.

Rigolleau soon became South America’s most important crystal making company, and one of the world’s greatest. At the same time Rigolleau’s prestige grew all over the world, the company began to grow in terms of quantity production, and to industrialize and mechanize more and more the productive process. However, unlike the general trend, Rigolleau preserved an Artistic Section of fully hand crafted high quality, great design items. Many of these items were taken to world wide museums for their innovative design and precious technique.

The broad and varied production lines within Rigolleau beheld: carnival glass figurines and ashtrays, glass china, fluorescent lights tubes, insulators, lab ware and many more items created using diverse techniques such as: floating, kilnforming, glass soldering, bending, stretching, laminating, fusing, casting, pouring, blowing and pressing among the most relevant ones.

Rigolleau’s products are nowadays still part of millions of Argentinean’s daily lives as well as highly appreciated collectibles all over the world for their quality and design these items are coveted possessions to all those who appreciate the product of a perfectly done work.

I will be placing more information on Art Glass from Carnival to glass insulators as my investigation unfolds, Bob Frassinetti