Souvenirs from Prague

Glass is Bohemia's best-known craft, and Moser is its luxury name: Ludwig Moser started as an engraver in Karlovy Vary in 1857, and the firm still blows and cuts its lead-free crystal by hand. A good piece has sharp, polished cut edges and is signed; the cheap "Bohemia crystal" vases in souvenir windows are mostly mass-produced. Ask where a piece was made and whether it was cut by hand.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The Moser boutique at Na Příkopě 12 (Černá růže building), where Moser has sold since 1925.

The small, deep-red Bohemian garnet has been set in Czech jewellery for centuries, traditionally many stones close together. Granát Turnov, a cooperative founded in 1953 from Turnov goldsmiths' workshops, mines its own stones and holds the "Český granát" trademark; its pieces come with a certificate. Red glass and imported garnets are sold as "Bohemian" in many shops: ask for the certificate.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Granát Turnov, Dlouhá 28 in the Old Town (main shop), with other shops on Havířská and Panská and a garnet museum with sales gallery on Karlova.

Czech puppetry is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list (2016, together with Slovakia), and string puppets carved from lime wood are its classic form. A real one is carved and painted by hand, with jointed limbs and a proper control bar; many cheap ones are cast or 3D-printed. Ask who made it and how.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Marionettes.cz, the puppeteers' workshop and shop at Nerudova 32 in Malá Strana, gathering puppet-makers since 1993.

Alfons Mucha, born in Moravia, made his name with Art Nouveau posters in 1890s Paris, and his flowing women and halos of hair turn up on everything in Prague. A good poster reproduction or art book from the museum shop beats the blurry magnets and tea towels sold elsewhere.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The shop of the Mucha Museum in the Kaunický Palace, Panská 7, with posters and gifts of Mucha's work.

In Prague, around 1911–1914, Cubism spread from painting to buildings, furniture and tableware. Faceted cups, vases and jewellery in that style, made for or sold by a specialist gallery, are a more original gift than the usual glass. Ask whether a piece is an original, a licensed replica or a new design inspired by it.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Kubista, the gallery shop founded in 2002 on the ground floor of the Cubist House at the Black Madonna, Ovocný trh 19 (porcelain, glass, jewellery, books and furniture).

The hardened-glass nail file is a Czech invention of the late 1990s (Blažek Glass, Poděbrady), and it is light, cheap and lasts for years. Czech ones are marked as such on the pack; many look-alikes are made elsewhere.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: Glass shops and almost every drugstore in the centre.

Two spirits Czechs offer guests: Becherovka, a herbal bitter sold since 1807 from a recipe of about twenty herbs and spices, still made in Karlovy Vary in its green bottle; and slivovice, plum brandy, at its best from Moravian distillers such as R. Jelínek of Vizovice. Buy them in a supermarket or specialist shop rather than a souvenir stand, and pack bottles in checked luggage.

• 🛍️ Where to buy it: The R. Jelínek Slivovitz Museum and shop, U Lužického semináře 116 near the Malá Strana end of Charles Bridge; Becherovka in any supermarket or liquor shop.