At the end of December last year, our new edition “Glass from the Collection of the Regional Museum of Jagodina” was published. The publication was realized thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Serbia. The catalogue presents the results of research into the history of glass production in the territory of the City of Jagodina on 200 pages and catalogues 167 objects that make up this collection.
The beginning of glass production in the area of Serbia began in 1846 near Jagodina thanks to the then Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Principality, Avram Petronijević. This was also the first factory in Serbia, and its opening marked the beginning of industrial production in our country. The factory operated until Avram’s sudden death in 1852 during a diplomatic mission in Constantinople.
The revival of Serbian glass production came only after the enactment of the Law on Supporting Domestic Industry in 1873. On August 7, 1879, Julije Bozitovac received permission to establish a new glass factory in Jagodina. The factory was located at the end of Levačka čaršija, on the old road to Kragujevac. The factory did not have the funds to modernize itself and thus increase production, and for these reasons it had to cease operations. In 1882, the glass factory was purchased from Bozitovac by Atanasije Nacko Janković (1829–1898), a merchant from Jagodina, with the associated capital of his father-in-law Mika Aranđelović. Soon Mika left the partnership, and Nacko continued to run the factory independently. After Nacko’s death, his son Dušan took over the management of the factory. Faced with debts and other problems, Dušan Janković sold the factory at the end of the first decade of the 20th century, and it then ceased operations.
On the map of industrial heritage, Jagodina is an indispensable point because it was in this territory that the national production and industrialization of glass in the restored Serbia began. Regional Museum of Jagodina preserves objects that testify to the very beginnings of the glass industry. The remains of glass mass, glass furnaces and glass fragments originating from the Avram Petronijević glassworks are authentic testimony to the existence and operation of the first Serbian industrial plant. Representative glasses from the production of the Nacko Janković glass factory, as well as unique products made for the Janković family itself, or rather the prominent Jagodina banker Marko Đorđević, founder of the Jagodina Savings Bank, indicate that in addition to glass intended for general consumption, this factory was also capable of producing luxury items that received medals at world exhibitions. The collection of the Regional Museum of Jagodina also contains a large number of glass objects produced at the Serbian Glass Factory from the first decades of its operation until the end of the 20th century.
Finally, as part of the furniture or inventory in the city’s taverns and pharmacies, the glass from this collection testifies to the life of the inhabitants of Jagodina, their material status and taste, and can be viewed from the perspective of applied art, ethnology, but also from an industrial and technological perspective.
The implementation of this project has published the valuable materials that the Museum possesses in its collection, thus contributing to the accessibility of the museum’s heritage, which will, we hope, be of importance for further study of the glass industry in Serbia, and the very beginnings of the development of this industry.
The author of the catalog is Jasmina Trajkov, an art historian, museum advisor, while the graphic design of the catalog and photographs of the objects were made by Đorđe Filipović. The book was printed in a circulation of 300 copies in the printing house “Zlatna knjiga” and will soon be available for purchase at the Regional Museum of Jagodina at a price of 2,000 RSD.
