When it come to hookahs, I am of the camp that believes functionality should always come first. Don’t get me wrong; I love a beautiful hookah and I have spent a good deal of money on superfluous items to make my rigs really shine, but I’m not about to go spend a hundred dollars on a Bohemian crystal vase that I’ll probably just end up breaking. So, why are people so keen on Bohemian vases and what does BOHO mean?
BOHO is a bit of slang that has started among the hookah fanatics that is just shorthand for Bohemian. These are very high quality vases with high price tags and a devoted following. Nothing particularly complicated about that. The definition of “Bohemian” is where we get a bit more complex.
In the simplest terms, Bohemian means that it is from Bohemia, which is another way of saying the Czech Republic. For a vase to be a true Bohemian vase or BOHO it needs to have been produced in the Czech Republic, an area that has been known for its fine glass work and superior quality for a very long time. To be a vase deserving of the BOHO moniker, it must also be made from crystal, which is a particular type of glass we will go over at another time. For many years, the true sign of class for a household was a nice set of glasses and a decanter made from Czech crystal. This trend has fallen out of favor as of late, but true Czech crystal is well loved by many and prized for it’s clarity, weight and beauty.
There are also many vases produced in other areas that are sold as Bohemian or even just Bohemian style. This is really confusing as many of these vases are not even made out of crystal, some of them are actually of quite good quality and few of them have even share their shape with each other. The picture used in this article is a good example of a high quality vase that is often mistaken as a Bohemian vase. This vase is the one that come with a Mya Saray Colossus and it is one of my favorite vases that I own. It is extremely clear, very heavy and completely stable. These are the qualities that BOHO fans tout in regards to true Bohemian vases, but this is not a Bohemian vase. Let’s be clear here. Mya does not claim that this base is Bohemian crystal. They do sell true crystal products, but this is not one of them. For my money, a Bohemian vase needs to be from the Czech Republic and made from true Crystal for it to be Bohemian.
I hope that this clears up a couple questions you may have had and helps you make a good choice if you ever decide to buy a Bohemian vase. It may still be hard for you to tell a BOHO simply from looking at it, but you can be sure that you’ll know the difference if you ever get to hold one in your hands. There are many people out there who will slap the word “Bohemian” on a junk vase and try to sell it at a jacked up price, but I hope that my articles can help you spot these fakes and get what you are paying for.
Hello,
I am a representative for MYA Hookah. While we love to see our company and brand in articles across the web, we also would like to point out some issues with your article here.
The glass base that you pictured int he article is not a bohemian base nor did we ever advertise this as such. That base is what we call our “Classic Glass’ base. It is not a bohemian base and we never sold it as a bohemian glass base. did you purchase this from our website or a third party seller? If it was not directly through MYA Hookah’s website, then you may have been given false info.
All of our classic glass bases, like the one you pictured, are made of a high quality solid color glass and most of them are manufactured in China.
Your article seems to set the tone that we are misleading our customers into purchasing bohemian glass that is not true bohemian. This is a false statement that you have made. All of our products on our website are properly categorized and given a proper description. However, due to our popularity in the hookah community, many companies have begun to purchase glass that looks similar to our bohemian glass. They purchase these from China and they are low quality but to the untrained eye, they can be passed as our high quality bohemian products. Unfortunately, it seems like you may have purchased one of these fake bases.
If you purchase directly from our website or one of our distributors, you will not receive anything less than a fully accurate high quality product. If you purchase outside of our systems, you have a very high chance of receiving a fake product.
The picture you have is not one of our bohemian glass bases. It is our classic glass base, which we specifically state on those bases.
Feel free to visit our site and look at our bohemian products.
Please update your article to reflect what I have stated here, so that your readers do not think that we are selling a false product. Our bohemian hookahs are true bohemian glass. We take pride in our products and we stand by them 100%.
Sincerely,
MYA Hookah
My apologies. That was poor wording on my part. I was not saying that Mya Saray claims that these bases are Bohemian crystal. I was saying that many people and vendors claim that they are. I have reworded the article to make this clear and get rid of any confusion. Thanks for the info.
Are the crystal and Bohemian vases that you sell from the Czech Republic?