Nøstetangen glass works (1741–1777) - an industrial adventure in Hokksund

Text Randi Gaustad

How is it that in the 18th century fantastic wine glasses and chandeliers of top European quality were made in a small place like Hokksund? Glass had never been blown in Norway before, neither drinking glass nor window glass.

The reason was that Christian VI and his advisors in Copenhagen were passionate about exploiting all kinds of natural resources in the mountainous and forest-rich Norway.

That is why Det norske Kompani was established in 1739. The mission was to investigate how Norway's natural resources could be utilized in the best possible way. Mercantilism was the prevailing economic theory of the time and it aimed to produce as much as possible domestically to avoid importing goods and thus sending currency out of the country. The company started production of a number of products such as carbon black, charcoal, pot ash, pitch and tar. But it was the glass works that became the most lasting.

In the 16th and 18th centuries, glass in all forms had become more and more sought after in Europe, in the form of utility glass, bottles, window glass and beautiful drinking glasses. In Denmark, it was forbidden to build glass cabins from 1700 because it was too harsh on the forests. At Hokksund there was what was needed to make glass: fuel, quartz and hydropower, and also a river that could transport the products out to the hub of Drammen.

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Experts from Germany were called in, and after a few years of trial and error, the glass adventure was underway at Nøstetangen, a small headland where the Vestfosselva flows into the Drammenselva. It was the beginning of a new and flourishing industry in Norway. In the course of 50 years, the company established a total of seven glassworks, but only at Nøstetangen and in Hurdal and Gjøvik were finer drinking glasses produced. The others concentrated on bottles and window glass.

Production was initially small and irregular, but the few goblets that are known from the period show that, from the very beginning, both the manufacture of clean and blemish-free glass mass and the actual design of wine glasses and goblets were mastered. To show the results of the large investment, beautiful trophies and wine glasses were sent to the king in Copenhagen. They are still in the Royal Silver Chamber at Christiansborg Castle and at Rosenborg Castle in Copenhagen.