Czech Tube Casting | Top [better]

Then came 1989. The Velvet Revolution opened Czech industry to global markets. Western continuous-drawn tubing flooded in, cheaper and longer. Kavalier’s cast tube division collapsed within a decade. The casting tops—those heavy steel and graphite funnels—were scrapped or left to rust in warehouse corners. The last master caster retired in 2003, and no one replaced him. A continuous, eight-hundred-year Bohemian tradition of purposeful glassmaking (distinct from the Venetian decorative lineage) lost its final expression.