3
www.heimatforschung-regensburg.de
eForum
Paulus, Johann Eder
tugal. His wife Margarethe, née Horn, gave birth to a daughter in Coina, on 31
st
March 1740,
baptised Margarida. In her baptism record, Balthasar Eder (transcribed as „Hedra“) is ident
i-
fied as son of Benedikt Eder. The parents and grandparents of the child are described as of
German nationality and subjects of the Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg (
„naturais Wercebult
nação Alemanha“
),
7
due to their provenance from the glassworks of Schleichach in the
Steigerwald area, where Johann Eder’s brother Benedikt had worked until his death in March
1739.
Further archival evidence of the origin of the Eders is to be found in a wedding record of 26
th
November 1750. It concerns the marriage of Adam Eder, the other nephew, with the Portu-
guese bride Maria da Silva. The groom is described as follows:
„Adam Hedre filho legitimo
de Benedicto Hedre e de sua mulher Maria Hedre jà defuntos da Villa de Pointon Reyno de
Alemanha e Baptizado na frequezia de S. George de mesma Villa...”
8
(„Adam Hedre, legit
i-
mate son of Benedicto Hedre and his wife Maria, both already deceased, from the town of
Poi
nton in the Kingdom of Germany, baptised at St. George’s parish in the same town...“).
Painten with its glassworks of Rothenbügl, established in 1665, where the Eders had worked,
was often spelt „Pointen“ in Bavarian documents, until the 19
th
century.
Wedding record of Adam Eder („Hedre“) and Mar
ia da Silva, Pataias, Portugal,
26
th
November 1750
9
Many of the glassmakers who had come from Bavaria to Portugal together with Johann Eder
stayed, such as Jakob Fuchs and the brothers Ulrich and Johann Georg Hahn, the latter be-
coming the forefather of the present glass industrialist family Gallo.
10
7
Arquivo Distrital de Setubal, Portugal, Baptism Records Coina.
8
Arquivo Distrital de Leiria, Portugal, Livro de baptismos da freguesia de Pataias (1746
1811),
2
separate sheets; (Friendly advice by Mr. Herlander Miguel F
RANCISCO
, Maceira, Portugal).
9
Ibid.
4
www.heimatforschung-regensburg.de
eForum
Paulus, Johann Eder
Sweden
We do not know why Johann Eder left Portugal after such a short time, nor what made him
go to Sweden. Anyhow, in 1741, we find him and his sons Joseph, Johannes and Lorenz at
Kosta, in southern Sweden, where a crystal glass factory was being established and became
operational in 1742.
11
Glass had been manufactured in Sweden since the 16
th
century. However, production had
broken down during the Great Northern War (1700
1721). It took until 1735 before a new
glassworks was again privileged in Sweden. From that year on until 1796, 16 glassworks
were established in Sweden itself
–
not counting Finland. Only two had survived from former
times.
12
Also in Finland, which was part of the Swedish kingdom, the first new glassworks
was founded in 1748, after a preceding one having been closed down in 1685.
13
The devel-
opment of the glass industry, forced by the state, brought mainly German glassmakers into
the country. Already the oldest Swedish glassworks had depended predominantly on Ger-
man specialists.
14
The efforts of the Swedish government to intensify the national glass production may soon
have got around among the trade. Eder may have learned that professionals were sought for
Sweden through his contacts with his former places of employment Schleichach and
Rothenbügl. In this context the brothers Johann und Christian Filion who had come to Swe-
den from Schleichach in 1737 may have played a role. They travelled to Frankfurt, from
where they returned to Sweden in the spring of 1739.
15
Most probably, the purpose of their
trip had been the recruitment of German glassmakers.
A further possible connection of Eder to Sweden could have consisted in Wilhelm Greiner.
The latter had been working as a smelter on the Swedish glassworks of Björknäs, prior to
1739, and later on at Perstorp, from 1742 to 1748.
16
This Wilhelm Greiner is possibly identi-
cal to the smelter of the same name found at the glassworks of Irlbrunn until 1734. He might
have been one of five glassmakers who had come to Björknäs in Sweden from Ratisbon in
December 1736.
17
The glassworks of Irlbrunn was only half an hour’s walk from Rothenbügl,
10
Cf. P
AULUS
, Bayerische Glasmacher, as above note 2.
11
Torbjörn F
OGELBERG
Friedrich H
OLL
, Wanderungen deutscher Glashüttenleute und Schwedens
Glasindustrie in den letzten fünf Jahrhunderten, Växjö 1988, p. 71, as well as:Jan Erik A
NDERBJÖRK
,
Kosta Glasbruk 1742
1942, Stockholm 1942, p. 18, 143 and 222.
12
Ibid., p. 10.
13
Aimo L
ÖFBERG
, Suomen lasinpuhaltajat 1748
1860; Riihimäki 1981, p. 85.
14
F
OGELBERG
H
OLL
, Wanderungen, as above note 11, p. 9.
15
Ibid., p. 17.
16
Ibid., p. 77.
17
Ibid., p. 15.