Seguso Vetri D'Arte 'Scavo' Floorlamp w/ Sculpted Bronze Base

[Pinkspoons]

I've recently started to get interested in 20th Century Italian glass made in the Roman / Etruscan style. I've a few smaller pieces here and there, but I thought it was time to take the plunge properly with this beast of a piece!

It's 23" / 585mm tall and 14" / 365mm diameter. It has a loose-fitting trumpet-shaped shade with 'scavo' decoration sat in a patinated brass mount of three abstract male nude figures. It bears a Seguso label, c.1970s.

Do Seguso scavo pieces have any attributed designers? It seems a shame that such a sculptural piece should go without a creator!

[langhaugh]

Nic,

You're doing very well with the Murano, aren't you. Which Seguso is it as I can'y see the label very clearly? The label looks more like Seguso AV than Archimede or SVd'A.

David

[Pinkspoons]

Definitely SVd'A (see attached photo). I bought it along with a vast urn and a much smaller prunted vase, both SVd'A scavo - so I'm not doing too shoddily in my expansion into Venetian glass.  :D

[tam bam]

Really cool lamp!!  One of the best ones I have seen yet!!  I am green with envy over here. :sm:

tam bam

[Pinkspoons]

Thanks. 

I'm a big fan of it too - although I've not yet wired it up to see how it looks lit. I'm sure it will be fairly astounding, though, as the scavo decoration is most dense at the height where the bulb sits, so the light should be very mellow and diffused.

This is one of its companion pieces - 395mm / 15.5" tall, and with clear-cased jet-black handles...

[kane_u_pain]

  ...most envious of the urn vase...

I must say, trying to figure out the period after Poli left is utterly confusing. It is unfortunate that the SVdA website has very little information on the history of the company. There is this site with some information...

http://www.boglewood.com/murano/producers/segusovetri.html

As to the accuracy, I do not know for the 70's...i wish that SVdA book would come out! I can understand the delay, anything after 1963 must be frustrating for the author!

[langhaugh]

Nic,

I'm pretty sure that this is a 1980's plus label, which makes finding a designer quite problematic. The lamp comes from the incarnation of  SVdA that was owned by Maurizio Alberelli and most of the designs were from free-lancers. I also suspect that it's the stock from that company that provided most of the stock for this site http://www.design-and-arts.com/

I'd love to see a picture of your scavo with prunts if you get a chance.


David

[TxSilver]

Seguso VdA got mighty confusing in the 1970s for sure. I wondered if this label might be later -- say, 1980s. I usually think of the plastic labels as being 80s and later, though it probably isn't always true.

Are those nude boys? Not something one sees often in home decor.

[kane_u_pain]

Even in the early years of SVdA the labelling is confusing. I have a few soffiato pieces from the 1930's with the square white SVdA label and also the red Seguso label! I had thought the red Seguso label was from the 1940's through to early 50's. Then you have the well know SVdA shield that was used mainly in the 50's. In regards to the clear plastic label, wasn't this introduced in the 60's? I have a couple of early 60's pieces that have this label!
Confused?!  :huh:  

[langhaugh]

Kane:

Heireman's in Themes and Variations has SVdA labels up the collapse of the company in 1973 when the paper shield label was still in use. It didn't operate again as SVdA until 1976 and I think the plastic label is from then or later. Also, my sense is that the company after 1976 did a fair bit of reproduction work, either very old Murano or a revival of scavo, for example. Here's a piece I have with the same label on it. http://picasaweb.google.com/lasilove/Murano?pli=1&gsessionid=7v2Xf9iJ5uODYQ8mNuQ-jA#5497354505276231698


David

[kane_u_pain]

In typical kanenator style...I had to fall in love with the most confusing of glass companies known to man! 

[antiquerose123]

  Green  :sm: with envy  ---- that is Radio-active GREEN  :nk:

Nice 

[Pinkspoons]

I'm just about to dash out, so I'll answer a few of the other issues later today - but on the age of the label, knowing little of Italian glass I was just going from the Murano 101 labels section: http://glassgallery.yobunny.org.uk/displayimage.php?pos=-9950

Whilst I instinctively tend to think of plastic labels as quite modern inventions, I do know that a few Scandi glass companies, like Riihimaki, were definitely using them in the 1960s.

Also, the lamp fittings seem quite 1970s - spraypainted Bakelite rather than heat-proof plastic. Although I don't know that much about Italian lighting, these fittings had been generally phased out in Scandi, German and UK lighting by the end of the 1970s.

[langhaugh]

Nic

Heireman is very reliable, and so I would bet a bundle on the label being 1976 or later. I seem to remember hearing there was a lighting forum somewhere.which might be able to help, although getting designers for lighting can be difficult unless it's Venini.

David

[langhaugh]

Kane I've found out a little more about SVdA  and its labels.  The company changed its name to Seguso Vetri d'Arte in 1937, and Archimede Seguso didn't come into being until 1946 so there's something odd about at least one of the labels being on your piece if it is 1930's soffiati.

I think I implied that the company was inactive 1973-6. Not quite true. The name was changed to Sculture Aristico Muranese when Albarelli took over in 1973 with Angelo Seguso and Pino Signoretto as the master blowers. I wonder if anyone has ever seen anything with that label on it? That company went bankrupt in 1976, but Albarelli reorganized and restarted as SVdA before the end of the year. I think much of the confusion is caused by the company then producing a lot of the older designs and mixing them with newer designs.

Kane: I suppose you've seen  this web site http://www.segusovetridarte.it/  Not much on it, but it's there adn sems to say that the family members have taken over the company again.

David