Topic: Poli Style Murano "Granulari" Overshot Faceted Vase

[horochar]

Hoping someone can help me identify this piece. I've never seen anything quite like it, on a book, on the internet or in real life.  It is a large and heavy piece, cobalt sommerso with orange overshot/granulari.  Nice, artistic piece.  It does have base wear that suggests age.  I believe that it's a vintage Murano piece and not Chinese or East European.  Thanks for any information.
Charles

[langhaugh]

Pretty sure it's recent Chinese, certainly not Poli and very unlikely to be Murano.  I seem to remember a bit of a run on these a couple of years ago. The polished facet gives it away.  They're quite attractive and not what you'd expect from China.

Anybody else remember? 

David

[horochar]

I don't discount that possibility, although it is more artistic than you'd expect from Chinese, and quality of execution is very fine. No bubbles, for instance. I suppose the base wear and fact it was very dirty are pretty meaningless. Thrift store find so if it turns out to be worhless, I won't be devastated. 

[kane_u_pain]

Do you have a pic of the neck? I always like to see the finish. How is the outer casing finished? Especially around the neck? The colour of the blue looks uniform and not 'runny'. Could this be recent Czech? As they did do these overshot pieces with facets.

[langhaugh]

My recollection is that this is quite modern.  The Czech glass that is overshot has almost shards of glass on the surface (see photo 1, which is 15 1/2 inches tall, btw), and, while they did do faceted glass, I can't recall any faceted overshot glass.  Scandinavia is another possibility, but memory still tells me China.  Some of the faceted glass I've seen from Chine is well executed, see photo 2.

David

[langhaugh]

Just after I posted it came to me: it looks very like Monica Backstrom, "Moonlanding" for Kosta Boda in 2000. It should be signed, though.

David

[horochar]

Thanks for all kind replies.  There are two or three orb-shaped pieces in the same vein on the net, all attributed (maybe falsely) to Murano. I am not totally convinced mine is Chinese, although there's a chance it is, due to not just high quality but also artistic merit (and to a tiny extent, existence of base wear).  If it were Chinese, it would be mass-produced and there's no evidence of this form anywhere.  Anyhow, in response to question, here is closeup of neck and surface.

Thanks again,
Charles

[langhaugh]

The faceted piece I showed was listed as Murano, too, but I've seen it in a Chinese catalogue. The overshot on your piece does look different from what's on the Backstrom pieces, although the shape is close.  The terms I've seen for overhsot in Murano books is granzioli, small pieces of frit, and granzioloni, larger pieces. I still can't see this being a Poli piece, but searching for those terms might bring up a Murano connection.

David