Glass production in the 16th Century

It was not by chance that the area around Gl. Rye became the centre for one of the first large glass works in Denmark at the end of the 16th Century. Enormous quantities of fuel were needed to heat the large ovens and there was plenty of fuel available in the woods around.

After the Reformation (1536) the Crown had acquired the woodlands mainly for the purpose of hunting. Frederik II, who had his hunting lodge in the buildings of the Monastery of Øm, decided that the massive amount of wood could be put to some other practical use and satisfy a great demand at the same time. The nobility had become an important factor in the economy and with the rising wealth came the building of castles and the holding of banquets. Glass panes were needed for the buildings and drinking glasses for the banquets. There were no skilled workers in glass production so Frederik turned to his father-in-law, The Duke of Mecklenburg, who sent him a team of German glass workers. It appears that they were not particularly skilled. It was only when the well-known glass worker, Liborius Trebing, came to the area around 1582 with 10 skilled glassworkers that effective production started.
 
The glass production included among other things window panes for the castles of Skanderborg and Silkeborg and nothing less than 20,000 wineglasses for the Coronation of Christian IV. The old tradition of emptying your glass, throwing it over your shoulder and then asking for a new one was responsible for the need for such a large number of glasses. 
 
The bottle (right) is of a type called a "Nønken. A very small bottle made from light green and very thin glass although the shape is same as much larger bottles. The "Nønken" was found, complete, in Hyttekær. It proves that many "Nønkens", found in the ground in Copenhagen, originate from Jutland.

The small ointment jar (left), no larger than a thumb, was found, complete, in the sill of the southern house in Stenhule. Larger jars of the same type have been found in the moat
round Rosenholm. 

Names like Glarbo (lit. glass hut), Hyttekær and Stenhule all bear witness to the large production of glassware in the woodlands around Gl. Rye in earlier times. Stenhule was a glassworks of some size. The furnace was constructed in a dome shape using sandstone and was capable of withstanding temperatures of up to 1400 degrees Celsius day and night. When it could no longer withstand these temperatures, it was pulled down and rebuilt with new materials. The ruins of Stenhule glassworks were cleared a few years ago and the remains of a large works with houses and ovens were found. Unfortunately not many bits of glassware were found.  

Glass production created many clearings and glades in the large woodlands around Gl. Rye (Rye itself means "clearing") and at the turn of the 16th Century the "huts" stopped production as the resources were used up.

The interesting glass finds from the area around Glarbo, where Liborius Trebing lived, are exhibited in the museum.