Floris Meydam

Floris Meydam (1919, Leerdam -2011, Leerdam) was a Dutch modernist design engineer, especially of glassware and ceramics. His father worked as a glass packer at Leerdam. Although Floris was highly gifted, he was sent by his father to the ambachtsschool (Junior Technical School) to be trained as an electrician. In 1935, he got a job at Glasfabriek Leerdam’s publicity department. He was apprenticed to the designer Ad Copier, who would found the Glass School Leerdam in 1940. Initially, this school was meant for glassblowers and glass grinders, but from 1942 onwards also glass decorators were admitted. After studying during one year, Meydam was appointed a teacher at the institute. Meydam was a brilliant designer. He was awarded a number of important prizes and exhibited at the most famous museums in the world, as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. In 1949, Meydam became the head of Glasfabriek Leerdam’s design department. He gave the postwar collection of the glassworks its own special character. In addition to glass of every day use, ornamental glass, and services, he also designed numerous glass panels for enterprises and institutes. Meydam was a modest, social-minded man, who could be humorous and make subtle puns. He married three times and had seven children. In 2010, he was honoured with a special exhibition by the Nationaal Glasmuseum in Leerdam.