Regina and Klukflaske: Holmegaard Glass Shapes That Stayed

Holmegaard is often described as Per Lütken's glassworks, and many readers assume that any long-lived Holmegaard shape must be his. Two of the house's most enduring pieces, the Regina stemware and the three-pillar Klukflaske, tell a more precise story. This piece looks at who is actually credited with each, why they stayed in production, and what that means if you are choosing one for your own table.

A glassworks that keeps its designers and its shapes

Holmegaard was founded in 1825 on Zealand, where peat cut from the Holmegaard bog fired Denmark's first glassworks. The earliest output was plain green bottles, and the factory has worked in mouth-blown glass ever since. That continuity matters, because a shape that relies on a blower's hand can only stay in a range if the skills to make it stay in the building.

Per Lütken is the name most closely tied to that continuity. He joined Holmegaard in 1942 and worked there for more than half a century, long enough to shape the character of the factory's output across several generations of Danish homes. Our catalogue credits him on eight products. It is tempting to extend that credit to every Holmegaard classic, but the two designs in this article carry other attributions, and they are worth keeping straight: Regina is credited to Anja Kjær, and the Klukflaske is credited to Holmegaard itself.

What links them to Lütken's long tenure is not authorship but the factory culture he worked in, one where a good shape is kept, remade and handed on rather than replaced each season.

Klukflaske: a bottle named after its sound

The spirits bottle has been synonymous with Holmegaard glass design for many years, and the Klukflaske 3-pillar H26 cm clear is the version that most people picture. Its body is divided into three columns. Plenty of bottles on the market use four; very few use three, and the odd number gives it a slightly twisting, sculptural silhouette when seen from different sides of a room.

The name comes from the Danish word for the sound it makes. As the liquid is poured, air moves through the columns and the bottle gives a distinct glug, a "kluk", that anyone who has used one recognises at once. Few household objects are named after the noise they make, and fewer still are designed so that the noise becomes part of the ritual of pouring.

In practical terms, the Klukflaske stands 26 cm high with a diameter of 10.5 cm and weighs 1 kg empty. It is made of mouth-blown transparent glass, which is why it looks best with something coloured inside: whisky or cognac shows the amber through the pillars, and on a bar trolley or sideboard the bottle reads as an object even when nobody is pouring. Because it is clear, it also works as a water bottle on a kitchen table where you want the contents visible.

Regina: a Copenhagen gift for a royal silver wedding

Regina has a well-documented origin. Anja Kjær designed the range in 1992 for the silver wedding of Queen Margrethe II and Prince Henrik, and Holmegaard produced the glasses as a gift from the Municipal Council of the City of Copenhagen. The brief for a civic present to a monarch is a demanding one: the glass had to feel festive and ceremonial without becoming fussy.

Kjær looked to old Venetian glasses for the answer. The Regina stems are slender and the bowls are light, with the quiet, slightly formal outline of glassware meant for a laid table rather than a kitchen shelf. The range grew into a full family, with glasses for white wine, red wine, port and champagne, as well as tumblers, so a whole table can be set in one line.

That completeness is one reason Regina has lasted more than three decades. A set that covers every course is easy to add to over years, one or two glasses at a time, and a design with a royal occasion behind it tends to be bought for weddings, anniversaries and other dates people want to remember.

The Regina pieces and the Klukflaske compared

The figures below come straight from the product specifications. Mouth-blown glass varies slightly between pieces in capacity and weight, so treat them as close guides rather than exact tolerances.

The Regina Red Wine Glass 28 cl clear is the tallest of the stemware at 19.5 cm, with a narrow 8 cm bowl that keeps the glass elegant rather than oversized. The Regina Tumbler 19 cl clear is the everyday piece: 12 cm high, 7 cm across, and the one most likely to be used on an ordinary Tuesday. The Regina Champagne Bowl 25 cl clear is the most distinctive of the three, a coupe 12.5 cm wide and 13 cm high, and at 0.5 kg noticeably more substantial in the hand than the red wine glass. There is also a Regina white wine glass of 18 cl in the family for those who want to set a full sequence.

Living with mouth-blown glass

Every Regina glass and every Klukflaske is blown by hand, so no two are quite identical. Holmegaard treats the marks of that process (slight asymmetry, small variations in wall thickness, the odd bubble in a stem) as evidence of how the piece was made rather than as flaws. If you line up six glasses and look closely, you will see it, and that is the point.

The same process sets the care routine. None of these pieces is dishwasher safe; wash them by hand in warm, not hot, water and avoid sudden changes in temperature, such as rinsing a chilled champagne bowl under a hot tap. Hold stemware by the bowl when you dry it rather than twisting the stem against the foot. For the Klukflaske, a bottle brush and a rinse with warm water are enough; let it dry upside down so no water collects in the pillars.

On placement, the Klukflaske earns its place where light can pass through it, on a windowsill, an open shelf or a sideboard near a lamp. Regina stemware is at its best on a white or linen cloth, where the thin stems and pale bowls read clearly. If you are still weighing up everyday wine glasses from the same factory, our comparison of Perfection and Cabernet covers two other long-running Holmegaard lines.

Regina and the Klukflaske show two ways a shape survives at a glassworks: one through a ceremonial commission that grew into a full table range, the other through a form so familiar that its name is simply the sound it makes. To see how they sit alongside the Flow, Idéelle and Minima ranges, browse the full Holmegaard collection.