The Red Room or "Jehan
d'Hennezel Room"
Jean (Jehan) De Hennezel, married Damoiselle Beatrix de Braizey in 1446. He was named in the charter of glassmakers (1448); founded the village of Hennezel; believed to be the first of this family to practice glassmaking.
In 1999 Michael & Jocelyn Donoghue (daughter of Barry & Helen Henzell)
visited the Village of Hennezel in France. They bought home a booklet “LE MUSEE
D’HENNEZEL-CLAIREY – ET LA ROUTE DU VERRE”
This
is a thirty-two page booklet of the history of the district including colour
photographs. The following is a translation of the portions relevant to the
Henzell family.
The
following link is a web page on the Museum and has links to the area (in
French):
http://www.aventuriers.com/lorraine/decouverte/musee_hennezel/index.shtml
(Page 3)
In July 1986, the Saône-Lorraine Association officially opened the Museum
of Glass, Iron and Wood Crafts, situated in the Clairey Residence which had
been acquired a year before by the municipality of the village of Hennezel.
... The following year, on the occasion of a reunion of the descendants of
the D'Hennezel family, a new room was inaugurated in memory of the Abbé
Mathis, a martyr of the Resistance...
(Page 14-15)
This small space contains a very fine display which depicts how
glassworkers lived and worked during the 15th century and answers a
fourfold question. First, the localisation of the glass works in the woods
of Darney. A wall showcase displays the materials essential to glassmaking:
sand, lime, soda, and potash. These materials were readily available on the
sites, not to mention the wood and refractory clay needed for the furnaces
and for the manufacture of crucibles.
How was glass manufactured? The mixture was put in crucibles
heated to a high temperature (1200-1500 degrees C), then the glassmaker
gathered the viscous paste before blowing it. Certain glass works
specialised in "small" glass - drinking glasses, bottles. To make the
"high" glass or window glass, blown cylinders were opened, unrolled
and cut
following a technique explained by the mural drawings.
The life of the glass workers is a third question answered by the
display and documents: a glass works is a small establishment in a forest
clearing, next to a dam, relying on its own resources. The kiln is fired
day and night. The only "foreigners" entering this closed world to
bring
news from the outside were the tax collectors employed by the Duke of
Lorraine or the hawkers or carters coming to get their supply of glassware
to sell in Beauvais or in Antwerp.
Last question: who manufactured glass? By an authorisation called
the "Charter of Glassmakers" in 1369 (renewed in 1447 and thereafter)
the
Duke of Lorraine encouraged the installation in this wooded region close to
the borders of four important families, which according to historical
tradition, came from Bohemia in the case of the Hennezels, Thietrys and
Thysacs, and from Flanders in the case of the Bisvals. It is interesting to
observe the coats of arms where one often finds the acorns of the secular
oak, symbol of the fecundity of the woodland. These noblemen possessed the
secret of fabrication and swore to transmit it only to their descendants.
Thus was born the caste of the "gentleman glassmaker". But in the
18th
century treatises on the art of glassmaking appeared which divulged the
techniques - one of these books is shown in the horizontal showcase in the
room alongside a beautiful drink bottle made in the 18th century and
several other souvenirs of these families which, when the Thirty Years War
caused the closure of the glass works, spread near and far in Europe and
the rest of the world (Switzerland, England, Australia).
(Page 30-31)
This architectural set - castle, chapel, fortified house and, in nearby
fields, the sites of kilns - is all that is left of a series of "glass
manors" situated in the forests of Darney. The crenels of the north tower
and the openings with segmented arches are evidently from the 18th and 19th
centuries, when this property belonged to the descendants of glassmakers
(D'Hennezel, De Grandmont, De Financel) or to allied families (Rathier, De
Fleury). But the origin of this glassmaking establishment dates back to the
end of the medieval period - the towers, crenelling and walls of the manor
date from the founding family, the glassmaking Thysacs (XVth century). The
fortified house at the south of the castle (adjacent to the chapel), dates
from the same period and belonged to the Thysacs and the D'Hennezels.
This village originated in a glassmaking establishment (the same is true of
Claudon - most other glassmaking sites in the region, like Thomas, Le
Grandmont, Thiétry, are now inhabited and have returned to the forest).
Besides the Museum, which is situated in what used to be the residence of
the masters of the Clairey glass works, the village is also the site of a
Memorial to the Resistance hero, Abbé Mathis. The Saint-Stanislas church,
built in the 18th century, has little historical interest. Its steeple is a
19th century construction.
Founded in 1475 by the Thysac family, it is the oldest glass factory still
in operation. It employs more than 200 workers and it manufactures two
clearly differentiated types of products: on one hand tableware and
giftware, on the other moulded products for the building industry (bricks,
tiles). The company is expanding and sells its products in France and
abroad.