Topic: I know it's Italian, but who???

[Dglass123]

I know it's Italian (notice the sticker on the bottom) but who made it??? Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Dglass123]

I found it...For anyone who was wondering the winner isssssssssssssss....Murano

[Sue C]

  how did you find out ? what site? they look more Scandi to me, anyway, well done.

[Bernard C]

They look pressed to me, which is how the candleholder would have been shaped, then attached to the pontil rod for shaping and finishing the rim.   Possibly swung.   Interesting combination of manufacturing techniques.   A lot of intelligent and creative design has gone into them.

I would like to see what happens when one is knocked over with an inch long lit candle in it.   I suspect that it could be surprisingly safe, with little or no spillage of molten wax.   And with all the weight at the base and a wide base ring, they could actually be quite difficult to knock over.

So, I wonder who the genius designer was.   And why aren't they in every shop in the High Street?

Bernard C. 

[Dglass123]

Well... from what I,ve read about Marano glass is, each piece is hand made in Italy and each piece is a one of a kind. Even the two pieces you are looking at aren't exactly the same. One is 18" tall and the other is 18 1/2".

[Pinkspoons]

Murano is a place (a small archipelago off the coast of Venice) that houses a number glassmakers with a wide variety of output, rather than being a single manufacturer with a fixed method of production. Much of it over the years has been very much mass-produced for the tourist and export trades - into which category your very quirky candleholders fall.

I would probably refrain from using phrases such as "one of a kind", though... because they were probably made in their (tens of / hundreds of) thousands. And even machine-made pressed glass can have some variation between individual pieces.

But don't let that detract from them; if you like them, then you like them, regardless of how they were made and in what quantities.

[Bernard C]

Dglass123 — Ooops, but I was being honest, and showing unusual enthusiasm.    I think that the last time I was so taken with something new to me was here, and this was both pressed and completed by hand, just like your candleholders.

It is actually relatively uncommon to find completely hand-made glass, made without the use of moulds or formers in any way, from Murano, elsewhere in Italy, or anywhere else.   I had the greatest pleasure watching one of those lovely crystal female torsos being sculpted on one of my visits to Murano, and that was completely hand-made, which explains why they are so costly (two skilled glassmakers took over half an hour).

By the way, after I posted above, I got out a ladle, to see how it would fall, and I'm sure that my speculation has some merit.   Have you tried it?

Bernard C. 

Nic — Murano is an island, two islands, three islands, or seven islands, depending on how big you want the gap to be before you regard two pieces of land as separate islands.

[shandiane78]

I hate to argue, but these don't look like Murano glass to me. They have more of a mainland Italy look...

[Bernard C]

shandiane78 — I love a good argument, so, rather sadly, I have to agree.   In my opinion a Murano attribution for these candleholders is somewhere between most unlikely and impossible;  like you I would be looking elsewhere in Italy.

Bernard C. 

[Dglass123]

Your right. Saying "one of a kind" is not the correct wording. Saying each piece is unique in thier own way would probably be better. I was just trying to get across that they are not stamped out in a production line. As for these pieces not being Marano, I could only find one other piece that looks the same to me on the internet.  http://www.rubylane.com/shops/eyesnglas/item/2004  Most of the information I gathered is from library books.

Bernard-
As for trying to tip them over there is no way I'll try that. I dont even like getting to close to them. Sometimes I'm like a bull in a china shop.