Target Balls
from Germany and neighboring countries

By Horst Klusmeier

During many years of collecting bottles and other utility glass, I had seen quite a few British target balls while attending English bottle shows. In those days, in the early ’80s, they never really attracted me. I was more interested in bottles of the pontiled kind.
Then, about 15 years ago, I had the chance to acquire eight German SOPHIENHUTTE IN ILMENAU (THUR) balls in dark amber and six Dutch FLESSCHENFABRIEK BOERS & CO DELFT balls in two distinctly different shades of green. (See photo 1 and 2.) Value wise I had no idea, so, checking out AB&GC, I contacted Alex Kerr, who was constantly advertising in those days. He offered me $100 for one, which I took. Since he only wanted round ones, I sold the others, which were slightly sagged, through Glass Works Auctions.
Alex sent me a photo of a cobalt blue SOPHIENHUTTE. Also, a few years later, a green SPHIENHUTTE was sold through Glass Works Auctions.
Up until today no further SOPHIENHUTTE or FLESSCHENFABRIEK BOERS & CO DELFT target balls have shown up. Therefore, I consider those balls in any color very rare.
Some time later, different CHARLOTTENBURG target balls were found. Some are scarce, some rare and others are simply not available.
Charlottenburg is now part of Berlin, and according to my records had two glassworks in the 1870s. Neither of the owners coincides with the owner names embossed on the center band of the target balls. Another intriguing point is the fact that the embossed German word GLASHUTTEN is the plural for glasshouse. According to this fact, Dr. A. Frank and F.W. Otte owned more than one glasshouse in Charlottenburg.
Of the "GLASHUTTEN F.W. OTTE jun. Charlottenburg" balls, two different patterns and four different colors, yellow-amber, clear, olive green and grass are known. (Photo 3 and 4.)
One pattern is identical to the Dr. Frank balls, the other pattern has elongated oval shapes above the center band and some of the ridges turn wildly into ovals. Also, the embossed letters on the center band are much bigger; because of this, "Jun" extends over the vertical mould seam.
About 14 of those balls were found, one each of the olive green and grass green example, the rest clear and yellow amber with the different pattern about evenly split in half. This makes the F.W. OTTE target balls very rare.
The next ball is embossed GLASHUTTEN Dr. A. FRANK CHARLOTTENBURG. Collectors who own both the F.W. OTTE and the A. FRANK balls will, by closer inspection, notice that one example of the F.W. OTTE balls and all the A. FRANK balls were blown in the same mold.
About 70 of the Dr. A. FRANK balls were found in the same beautiful yellow-amber, some of them with straw inside, others with feathers. Some originated from the grounds of a castle in Denmark, the rest came from areas in East Germany that now belong to Poland — for instance, Silesia and Pomerania.
The third differently embossed Charlottenburg target ball in yellow olive (see No. 5) turned up in Glass Works Auctions No. 64, Lot 112. It was embossed on the center band "CHARLOTTENBURGER GLASSHUTTEN". You will notice a proprietor is not mentioned on this ball, also the pattern is different and the letters of the writing are bigger. Since I have not seen the ball, I suspect that the same mould as the F.W. OTTE ball with the elongated oval shaped pattern was used. As far as I know, there are only two of those balls known. The person that won this ball in the auction for $425 truly got a bargain.
Photo No. 6 is a medium amber and cobalt-blue target ball with overall diamond pattern with embossed dots on every joint. About 15 of the amber and one cobalt blue ball are known. The majority have very roughly sheared lips; some of them look as if the blowpipe had been ripped off in a hurry, instead of broken off with a drop of water. The cobalt blue variety turned up a few years ago and seems to be ultra rare.
No. 7 has a diamond pattern below and above a blank center band, always sheared and with a ground lip. The first two of those balls were found in Hungary. Then another eight balls were found in Austria, which seems proof enough that they were produced in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. The majority are petrol colored with color variations, easy to recognize in a group, but not so easy on a photograph.
No. 8 is embossed "GRAFL. ZU SOLMS GLASFABRIK ANDREASHUTTE". This glasshouse is mentioned in my 1870s’ records. The owner was Count zu Solms. These are the balls with the unusually long neck. Less than eight were found in clear and medium amber, together with pontiled Christmas lights near or in the dilapidated buildings of the old glasshouse of Count zu Solms in Klitzschdorf in Silesia. The Solms family seems to have owned quite a few glasshouses in Germany in the 1870s period, according to my records.
No. 9, 10, 11: Those are the so-called "CZECH" balls, even though Czechoslovakia did not exist when these balls were made. The area was called Bohemia and belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire until 1918 and was predominantly inhabited by German-speaking people.
The balls were found only recently by a German dealer in the town of Gablonz, a glass-producing area for the last 300 years. These target balls are known in yellow-green, apple-green, amethyst, Prussian blue and black glass, in a strong pattern and a weak pattern.
According to the information that is available to me, two respectively three of the black glass and Prussian-blue balls are known, six of the amethyst and 14 of the apple green. The yellow-green balls seem to be quite available at the present time, but very soon the source will have dried up.
Collectors here and in America have been wondering why some of the Gablonz target balls have long necks. This was unexplainable and put forward as proof by some that those balls were not target balls at all, even though the ANDREASHUTTE target balls (see picture No. 8) with identical long necks refuted this argument. Anyway, I don’t have an explanation either, but I have a theory, which might give us a clue.
Both of the varieties of long-neck target balls were found on the grounds of the old disused glassworks and not at a shooting range or some other place removed from glasshouse property. There is a possibility that those target balls had to be refined (meaning ground down like No. 7) before shipment. Then, the shooting world changed to clay pigeons and they were just left behind.
No. 12 is the only known example of a German target ball in amber embossed around the middle "RUD. WEBER HAYNAU I. Sch." It is not known if Rud. Weber was the owner of a glasshouse or a gun shop. My guess is, a glasshouse owner, considering the fact that the town of Haynau in Silesia (Schlesien in German) — in 1939 a town of 11,000 — was in very close proximity to the Andreashutte in Klitzschdorf and that this area of Silesia was just covered both with big modern glass factories and very small old-fashioned glass houses in the 1870s.
No. 13 is a clay target ball, again in the only one known. It is embossed "G. GALETSCHKY 2 BRELAU" The city of Breslau was the capital of the German province of Silesia.
The last German target ball that I know of and that I would like to describe is in the possession of the Spessart Museum in Lohr am Main. It is crosshatched and embossed around the center band "FURST. LOWENSTEINSCHE GLASFABRIK EINSIEDEL." The ball in the museum is in amber and without a neck; it seems to be sealed like a fishing float. From the existing warehouse list we know that green target balls were also produced. None of those balls have turned up on the open market. The Spessart Museum keeps the memories of the Glasshouse “KARLHUTTE” in Einsiedel in the Spessart Forrest alive.
The Karlhutte was started in 1807 by Prince Karl Thomas III of Lowenstein – Wertheim to make use of the abundance of trees in the forests of his county. In 1889, the glasshouse closed its gates. Interestingly, a letter of introduction dated 26th of April 1885 survived offering target balls to a gun shop in the town of Bingen for 2.70 marks per 104 balls. That was the equivalent of 60 U.S. cents in those days.
To conclude, I’ll have to say that this article is far from complete. In the meantime, I have heard about single unlisted balls having been found in Sweden and France. In time we will hopefully learn more about these new discoveries.
I would like to thank P. Schlarb for giving me the opportunity to photograph some of the target balls in his collection.....

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