Handkerchief-Shaped Murano Murrine Vase attributed to Ercole Barovier, Italy, 1950s

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Description

Description of the item:
Murano blown glass vase, entirely handmade with murrine and decorated with a technique called millefiori. Unsigned … Read more Description of the item:
Murano blown glass vase, entirely handmade with murrine and decorated with a technique called millefiori. Unsigned and dating back to around the mid-20th century. The vase is unsigned but, in our opinion, can be attributed to Ercole Barovier, as we have found murrine vases attributed by auction houses to the same artist that had murrine of the exact same shape as those present in our handkerchief vase.

Murrine are glass pieces of various shapes obtained by cutting glass rods made of different colors of glass layered one inside the other. These murrine are then joined one by one in a hot oven to create the vase, the final shape of which is then obtained by modeling this glass body, obtained by joining the murrine, giving it the desired shape and marbling it several times on the "bronzìn" (metal plate) using pliers and other metal tools. The Murrine will then stretch or contract, more or less depending on how much they are "pulled" to give the vase its final shape. Bear in mind that Murrine vases are not usually signed, due to the great irregularity of the outer surface of the vase, which prevents the diamond-point signature from being made.

Useful information for evaluating the item:
From our internet research, we have found that Ercole Barovier's murrine vases are offered at very high prices both on the best online platforms for the sale of art and antiques and at auction. We are talking about minimum prices of €500-600 for vases similar in size to ours, rising to over €10,000 or €15,000 for larger vases with complex workmanship. In general, however, murrine vases, even those not made by Barovier, are always offered at rather high prices if they are genuine murrine. In fact, it is important to note that you need to be wary of many other vases offered at rather low prices that look like murrine vases but are not. Murrine must be joined one by one and must be visible from the outside and inside, and the glass can never be too smooth to the touch but remains rather rough and opaque. Very often, they are not signed precisely because the surface of real Murrine vases is very irregular and therefore practically impossible to sign with a diamond point.


This piece is attributed to the mentioned designer/maker. It has no attribution mark and no
official proof of authenticity,
however it is well documented in design history. I take full responsibility for any authenticity



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