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Swedish crystal chandeliers with wax candles, sconces and pendants |
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Crystal.
What is prism quality? How do prism qualities differ? Which is best and which is most value for the money? Following you will find information given by the manufacturer about the most popular qualities.
There is a wide range of terms for prism quality that vary depending on raw materials, i.e. glass, production method, amount of cut facets and reflective qualities. The diagram below compares some of the most common terms used in Sweden.
Most of our chandeliers are pinned with prisms of quality 1a, referred on the website as full cut crystal, because we believe that this is the best and most price-worthy handmade crystal available today. We also have models which are pinned with Brilliant and Strass crystal.
Quality 1a
Quality 1a, most commonly used in our chandeliers, signifies that the crystal is handcrafted and all of the facets are cut (so called full cut crystal). The prisms are pressed from glass rods, cut and polished by hand, each prism individually. This means that the prisms don’t have the exactness of machine cut crystal, as in Strass products. As in all handmade art, each prism is unique in its own way. Instead of adding lead oxide to the melted glass, a more environmentally friendly clarifier is used to give the crystal the ability to refract light. A genuine quality control is performed when producing quality 1a prisms which means that chipped prisms or otherwise not acceptable prisms are rejected.Brilliant. Even our Brilliant quality is a fully cut and handcrafted prism. The prism is pressed, cut and polished by hand. The quality is slightly lower than that of 1a due to the melted glass not having the same clarity and the quality control not being quite as unforgiving, implying a certain degree of irregular edges.
Strass is a trademark for the quality produced by Swarovski. Technically, this is the most perfect prism of superior quality on the market. It is machine cut which means that all the facets on each prism are identical. Lead oxide is included as a clarifier in the melted glass, giving excellent reflections. All of the prisms are exact copies of each other and reflect light in exactly the same way. Strass prisms are considerably more expensive than other prism qualities.
Are the prisms made of Bohemian crystal? Almost everyone has heard of Bohemian crystal. It is an ancient term descended from the era when most glass-works were in Czechoslovakia/ Bohemia. These glass-works used the "handcrafted method" as in the description of quality 1a. Crystal is to date both man and machine made in the remaining Czech factories so "Bohemian crystal" is more of a recognized term than a quality guarantee these days. Our 1a prisms are mainly manufactured in Turkey in accordance with the handicraft methods originated from Bohemia.
