User:OpalYosutebito/sandbox

History

Pre-Cold War

The history of glassmaking in the Jablonec region has been documented since 1548, when the Wander family founded the first glassworks in Mšeno. Afterwards, settlers from the Jizera Mountains began passing down the craft of glassmaking from generation to generation. In 1680, Johann Kaspar Kittel created the first necklaces made of Bohemian glass beads in Jiřetín pod Jedlovou. After refining the beads, Kittel sells them all over the Bohemian and Saxon lands, as well as establishing more trading locations. In 1711, the Fischer brothers brought the secrets of crystal cutting and polishing to North Bohemia. Four years later, they moved to Turnov. In 1720, two merchants, Jan Pacovský and Samuel Subitan, travelled to Austria, Hungary and Italy, further popularizing Bohemian jewelry from Crystal Valley. In 1724, the first factory specialized in manufacturing and export of crystal chandeliers was established in Prácheň near Kamenický Šenov. Bohemian chandeliers were ordered for the Royal Courts—Versailles and Fontainebleau palaces of Louis XV, Sultan Osman III of the Ottoman Empire, and Empress Elizabeth of Russia. In 1743, Czech craftsmen created a chandelier in honor of the coronation of Empress Maria Theresa, which still bears her name.

By 1830, Crystal Valley glassmakers were creating around one million chandeliers per year.

In 1858, Josef Riedel moved to Polubný, becoming one of the most important glassmakers in Europe; in the 1880s he created an automated bead cutting machine, later patenting a machine to thread them. During the 19th century, Jablonec nad Nisou became the world center of the jewelry industry. The development of jewelry and glass companies, which were established and prospered in North Bohemia at the turn of the 19th century, was interrupted by World War II.

In 1945, the seven main crystal factories and 18 small firms in and around Jablonec nad Nisou merged, forming the Preciosa company, which was officially established on April 10, 1948.

Post Cold War-present

In 1993, Lustry Kamenicky Senov Inc., the largest Czech manufacturer of chandeliers and lighting fixtures, became a daughter company of Preciosa–Chandeliers, Inc. Two years later, the subsidiary company Preciosa Figurky, Ltd. was formed in the Preciosa Group. In 1999, Preciosa released a diamond look-alike called cubic zirconium. In 2009, the Jablonex Group divisions Glass and Beads joined with Preciosa Group to form a new company: Preciosa Ornela Inc.

Nowadays, Preciosa Group consists of the following companies: Preciosa Inc., Preciosa–Chandeliers Inc., Preciosa Figurines Ltd. and Preciosa Ornela Inc.

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Han Duk-su expansion:

Life

Han Deok-su was born on February 18, 1907 in Imperial Korea as the eldest son of Mr. Han Gi Man and Mrs. Jang Nae Gok. After attending Daegu Gyeseong High School for four years, Deok-su left Korea to study in Japan in 1927, wishing to become a vocalist, but was unable to pass the entrance exam for a music school. Two years later, he instead entered the Department of Social Sciences at Nihon University in Tokyo and worked as a newspaper deliveryman before dropping out. Afterwards, he turned his attention to the labor movement, and in 1931, he joined the Tokyo branch of the general trade union under the National Council of Japanese Trade Unions. In August 1933, Deok-su moved to Atami and became a standing member of the Higashizu Labor Union. In September 1934, he was arrested and sentenced to two years in prison with a three-year stay of execution on the charge of having organized a labor dispute among his fellow Korean laborers, who had been under forced labor at the construction site of the Tanna Tunnel.

Despite repeated arrests and imprisonments, Deok-su still fought for human rights and dignity of the Korean compatriots during the Japanese colonial days, which ended on August 15, 1945. After September 1945, he served as a representative of a Kantō district association of Koreans and a member of the preparatory committee for Chongryon. He was elected director of the general affairs bureau, and later director of the cultural and educational affairs bureau of Chongryon, which was founded in October 1945 and formed on May 25, 1955. He was also elected co-chairman of Chongryon in 1947.

Additionally, Deok-su served the Fatherland Front Central Committee as its member since 1949, and as a member of its chairmen's group from 1957 until his death in February 2001. He strived to reorganize the Korean compatriots' movement in Japan following Kim Il Sung's Juche-oriented line after 1952, including re-publishment of Choson Sinbo and resumption of the work of "Korean News Agency" based in Tokyo.

Death and legacy

On February 21, 2001, Han Deok-su died in Tokyo, Japan from pneumonia. Afterwards, a funeral committee was appointed with So Man-sul as its chairman and Ho Jong-man as vice chairman.