Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Murano & Italy Glass => Topic started by: Pinkspoons on October 24, 2011, 10:39:57 PM
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I've had this one a while, but haven't been able to trace a maker.
It's a dark purple glass with a metallic surface decoration very similar to Fratelli Toso's 'Nerox'. There are two putti and two lion's head prunts arranged around the side. Applied base is finished with a snapped-off pontil mark (the only place where the base colour shows through).
Thanks for looking. :)
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That is gorgeous !!! :thup:
I am :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Does the lion face have some aventurine in it? .... and what is Nerox ??
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Thanks for taking a peek - it is a nice one, isn't it? :)
Any colouring you see is entirely on the surface. The treatment makes the glass completely opaque and gives it a sheen like aged metal.
Fratelli Toso 'Nerox' vases with similar surface treatment:
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/8742973
http://www.liveauctioneers.com/item/5747057
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Nic:
That's a lovely piece. Is it fumed? I've never seen a Fratelli Toso nerox with no other colour on it. Usually the nerox is simply used for a a very effective background. I had a look through Pina's book on FT, which has a few nerox vases, but no bowls. ALthough some of the peices seem to have a had a surface treatment, none have quite as much as yours. The surfaces of the pieces in the link you give look a lot more like the surface of your piece. Fingers crossed (but it's gorgeous whatever).
David
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I'm afraid I'm not au fait enough with fumed glass to be able to say if this is or isn't for sure, but the treatment does look to have a more 'brushed on' effect.
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I don't know if other factories were producing Nerox-style glass, or if FT employed it discrete from the more famous Ermanno Toso designs...
I did notice, however, that this anonymous offering from Design & Arts has an identically-moulded lion's head prunt. I don't know if that could help reveal a maker?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Groser-Krug-Murano-Glas-Kanne-Klar-Gold-mit-Lowenkopf-Medaillon-Luftblasen-/350500519755?pt=Glas_Kristall&hash=item519b757f4b
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It's gorgeous, Nic.
All I can shove in are a few random thoughts.
S&W did a range of iridescent pieces with lion head prunts, called Caerleon, in 1929. (ref. Lesley Jackson's 20th Century Glass, p.196. But I think your piece looks a bit thick to be this - however, I've never handled a piece.
It does look fumed.
Other makers I know who have done this sort of fumed black background (with and without coloured inclusions) are Bertil Vallien for Kosta Boda and Will Shakespeare. (I can get pics of the last two if you'd like).
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Hullo Sue. Thanks for taking a look, and for your insights on fumed glass (I had to Google it when it was first mentioned :-[).
Design & Arts, the company linked to above with the identically prunted pitcher, almost exclusively source their wares from Murano... so I'd say there's a more than good chance that mine is also Muranese.
But, if it's absolutely no bother for you, I'm always up for looking at photos of new glass. ;D
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????
Think I saw some Murano glass items somewhere with heads/or lions on them -- being called Masks (as a decorative word) to describe them....or Mask punts.
I think.......??? :thud: ????
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Will Shakespeare partially cased bottle - unfumed - but with a very interesting texture and coloured inclusions and a Bertil Vallien partially cased bottle, fumed.
(I desperately want a Bertil Vallien "Brains" sculpture - but had to lower my sights a bit to owning one of his bums.)
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It reminds me of Gambaro & Poggi's lion head paperweights. The glass looks like something Mario Gambaro would make a few years back. I wonder could it be G&P. They do the nicest things.
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Oh, gosh, sorry - I was sure I'd replied to this thread.
Sue, I see what you mean about it being fumed. From memory, it's not quite so iridescent as that, though. The colours are also quite broken up. I'll dig it out again next time I have chance, and double-check. Nice vases, though! :)
I did have a look for G&P glass, but nothing leapt out in my searches. The closest I've come is, today, spotting a millefiori vase much in the style of Bucella Cristalli and bearing identical applied putti.
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The question is... did BC make glass like this, and also like the controlled-bubble pitcher with the lion head in the D&A auction above?