Vintage Murano Sommerso Blown Glass Vase by Flavio Poli, 1940s

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Description

Item description:
Fantastic Murano blown glass vase, made by Flavio Poli around the mid-20th century. The vase consists of a … Read more Item description:
Fantastic Murano blown glass vase, made by Flavio Poli around the mid-20th century. The vase consists of a flattened ellipsoidal body with two lateral glass ridges applied to the main body of the vase in relief. The glass is mainly transparent with shades ranging from blue at the mouth to green or red at the base. The base is twisted on itself, made using an extremely complex technique that consists of heating only the base to make the glass soft and malleable, and then rotating the vase, which has remained cold, on itself while the base is still attached to the pontil (the iron used to move the vase in and out of the furnace during the various stages of its production) so that the vase does not change its shape in any way, while the base deforms, creating a beautiful spiral. The glass is very thick and the vase is a good size and rather heavy, weighing in at 1.7 kg. The vase is not signed, as is the case with most of the vases made by Flavio Poli, who rarely signed his works.

Useful information for evaluating the item:
Our research shows that the eight highest auction results achieved by Flavio Poli, as found on Art Price, range from €12,000 to a maximum of €65,000, excluding auction fees of 25-30%, which gives an idea of the importance of the glassware created by this artist. We then found a vase, very similar to ours in shape and type of workmanship, with the exact same base, the only difference being that instead of being horizontal, the mouth has two lateral points. It was listed by the Treadway Gallery auction house in Cincinnati, Ohio, back in 1995, at $2,000-3,000 and sold for $850 (so the auction went very badly), converted by Art Price into €646, because in 1995 the euro did not yet exist, again excluding auction fees of 25-30%. Consider that at the time, $850 was equivalent to about 1.7 million lire, or about one and a half times the average worker's salary at the time, so it is as if the vase had been sold today for around €2,100-2,300, and we repeat that the auction went very badly.

Information about the artist and/or manufacturer:
Flavio Poli first worked for I.V.A.M. (Industrie Vetraie Artistiche Murano), which merged with Barovier Seguso e Ferro vetri in 1934 and took the name Seguso Vetri d'Arte in 1937. Flavio Poli was the first glass artist to introduce the nude into glass sculptures, and he is undoubtedly considered one of the most brilliant and original artists in the Italian glass art scene in the first half of the 20th century.


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



issues arising from misattribution See less