Vintage Art Deco Glass Vase by Ercole Barovier & Toso, 1950s

Details

Description

Item description:
Wonderful small Murano blown glass jug decorated with murrine, entirely hand-crafted. The vase is unsigned, as is the … Read more Item description:
Wonderful small Murano blown glass jug decorated with murrine, entirely hand-crafted. The vase is unsigned, as is the case with most Murrine glass pieces, but can be attributed to the famous master glassmaker Ercole Barovier. Under the base there is a yellowed and oxidized adhesive paper sticker, due to the object's many years of age, on which the year it was made, 1955, is written.

Useful information for evaluating the item:
Our research shows that the four highest auction results on Art Price for Barovier & Toso artistic glassware range from €160,000 to over €220,000, to which auction fees of 25-30% must be added. This gives an idea of the value of the glassware produced by this important Murano glassworks. As for murrine vases specifically, such as our jug, our research shows that auction results on Art Price range from a minimum of €380 to €189,644 depending on size, complexity of workmanship, and also the importance of the auction house that sold them. In particular, we found two vases very similar to our jug in terms of both size and type of murrine used: a 17 cm tall bowl-shaped vase, taller than our jug, sold for €1,636 plus fees by Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates of the United States at the "Spring Fine & Decorative Arts" auction on April 26, 2024, lot 66, entitled "Rotellati Murrine Vase (c.1970)" and another vase, cylindrical, exactly 11.5 cm tall like our jug, sold for €950 plus fees by Casa D'Aste Cambi in Genoa at the "Murano 1890-1990. A Century of Glass Art" on June 16, 2016, lot 316 entitled "Small vase with bicolour murrines, rotellati series (c.1970)". This is to give an idea of the value of vases very, very similar to ours.
(By entering the details of the items we have indicated into Google, especially the title of the auction or sale listing in the same language we have used, the date, the lot number, and the auction house or name of the sales website, you will, in most cases, be able to find and view the items mentioned).

Final considerations on the object:
Our vase is not signed, as is the case with most glass objects made with Murrine. This is because this process makes the surface of the vase uneven and rough, not smooth as is the case with most glass, and for this reason, signing it with a diamond point is practically impossible. Murrine are pieces of glass 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 the oven to create the vase, the final shape of which is then obtained by modeling the first 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" in giving the vase its final shape. This is the process that was carried out to create this small jug. Finally, the transparent glass handle, placed by hand on the jug, is particularly beautiful, with a series of notches that, when in contact with light, create an extremely elegant luminous effect.

Information about the artist and/or manufacturer:
Barovier & Toso is a leading glass manufacturer based in Murano, Venice. The Barovier family began their business in the mid-13th century, making it the sixth oldest family business in the world still in operation today. The company was re-established in 1878 as Fratelli Barovier, and in 1942, following a merger with the F.lli Toso glassworks, it took on its current name. It boasts numerous auction results and thousands of collectors. Il Palazzo Contarini in Murano, the current headquarters of Barovier & Toso, also houses the Barovier & Toso private museum of glass art, which contains some of the most important glass works ever made in Murano.


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I am sure that it is completely authentic and take full responsibility for any authenticity
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