Mid 20th Century Murano Glass Wine Glasses With Ribbed Gold-Leaf Stems, Set of Ten

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Murano Glass Wine Glasses with Ribbed Gold-Leaf Stems, Set of Ten
Mid-to-Late 20th Century

This set of ten Murano wine … Read more Murano Glass Wine Glasses with Ribbed Gold-Leaf Stems, Set of Ten
Mid-to-Late 20th Century

This set of ten Murano wine glasses is mouth-blown in clear glass, the stems worked in peach and golden-yellow glass enclosing gold leaf. Each glass has a thin, bell-shaped bowl with a gently flared rim. The stem is built in two parts between clear collars: a compressed, ribbed knop in peach above a short, ribbed inverted baluster in golden yellow, both alive with flecks of gold leaf. Each glass stands on a plain, clear circular foot.

There are three other shapes from the same service in stock, which can be seen in the last photo.

Dimensions:
Height: 5 inches (12.7 cm)
Diameter: 2¾ inches (7 cm)
Capacity: 4 ounces (120 mL)

Provenance: Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition: Good. Displays beautifully.

References:
William Gudenrath, The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian Glassworking (Corning Museum of Glass, 2016), for mold-blown ribbing and hot-applied gold leaf.
Consorzio Promovetro Murano, Murano Glass Glossary, for rigadin and foglia d’oro.

Historical Context: The Murano Stemware Tradition

Glassmaking has been concentrated on the island of Murano since 1291, when the Venetian Republic ordered the furnaces moved out of the city, and by the sixteenth century its thin, colorless drinking glasses were sought across Europe. The ribbed knop and baluster of these stems look back to that period, when goblet stems were blown in ribbed molds and often gilded. The ribbing is known on the island as rigadin, made by blowing the hot glass into an open, grooved mold before it is shaped by hand; here the ribs run straight (rigadin dritto). The gold is foglia d’oro, gold leaf picked up on the hot glass, which breaks into fine flecks as the glass is expanded.

Renaissance forms were revived on Murano from the 1860s and remained a staple of its table glass through the twentieth century, when a flourishing export trade brought color and gold into services made for modern entertaining. Services of this kind were rarely signed, and a set of ten matching, mouth-blown glasses is not easily assembled.

(Ref: NY11064-krrx) See less