COMPANY

The Czech premium lighting brand Brokis stands for the synthesis of exquisite design, superior quality, and the remarkable craftsmanship of Bohemian glass artisans. Conceived by renowned Czech and foreign designers, the original BROKIS lighting collections have steadily earned international acclaim and recognition. The company combines handblown glass with other refined materials, such as wood and manually pressed metal, in bold lighting compositions that push the boundaries of contemporary design. The Brokis portfolio features modern functional lighting fixtures, decorative objects, and unique lighting solutions for architects and interior designers. With its own high-capacity production facilities rooted in more than two hundred years of history, Brokis is free to experiment and develop innovative materials, techniques, and technologies as well as offer bespoke lighting solutions.

PRESERVATION OF BOHEMIAN GLASSBLOWING TRADITION

Brokis is the brainchild of successful Czech entrepreneur and engineer Jan Rabell. In 2006, he founded the brand Brokis as a platform to enliven and elevate Bohemian glassmaking to new heights and preserve generations of knowledge and craftsmanship. Nearly ten years prior, in 1997, he acquired the ailing Janštejn Glassworks, founded at the start of the 19th century approximately 140 kilometres southeast of Prague. Demand for traditional products had declined significantly, many of the glassmakers were growing old and leaving, and time-honoured technologies and techniques were at risk of being lost. Mr. Rabell’s vision was to restore the factory to its former prestige and ensure that the ages-old Bohemian glassmaking tradition endured into the 21st century.

With Brokis, Mr. Rabell created a lighting brand offering entirely different products than those previously produced at Janštejn Glassworks. Several new Italian-style furnaces were built, and production techniques were refined. Some, such as grinding and glass painting, were discontinued, and others were revived, e.g., glassblowing, optic moulding, and traditional hotshop techniques. Original and nearly forgotten formulas for manufacturing coloured glass were reinstated and are now characteristic of the Brokis brand.

Brokis has firmly established itself as a leading innovator in glass lighting. For example, the complex technology applied in production of the Night Birds collection, which consists of imposing yet elegant curved glass silhouettes of birds in various phases of flight, required two years of experimentation to perfect. Today, Brokis and Janštejn Glassworks employ a total of 100 people and enjoy a unique symbiosis that has allowed Brokis to launch sales operations in 70 countries and showcase its renowned lighting collections at the world’s top design exhibitions.

JANŠTEJN GLASSWORKS

For more than 200 years, Janštejn Glassworks, situated in Bohemia’s picturesque Vysočina Region, has upheld a glassblowing tradition that dates to the end of the 17th century. Founded in 1809 near the village of Horní Dubenky, the factory and generations of tenacious craftspeople employed by it have enjoyed periods of prosperity, yet have also endured much hardship, with three devastating fires, two world wars, and nationalization among the greatest challenges. Today, Janštejn Glassworks is the largest producer of specialty lighting glass in the Czech Republic.”