Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => Murano & Italy Glass => Topic started by: kennyg on February 22, 2012, 04:21:12 PM
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She's 7" tall and 6" long....anyone recognize the maker?
Thank you!
Ken
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I suspect it's unknown. But that looks like uranium glass to me.
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The dog is a familiar style - I've seen these in neodynum glass too, but I don't think a maker has been pinned down.
There's an image of a blue one on p.57 of Nigel's "Glass of the 50s& '60s; A Collector's Guide", from the Miller's series of Collector's Guides. Only id'd as Murano.
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I knew i'd seen something similar somewhere Sue! :thup:
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It's rather distinctive, isn't it, Max? Not something you could miss if you tried!
The fringe bits remind me a little of somebody's massive neodynum horse head which was posted here a while ago. (sorry, can't remember much about it - not my area and I didn't like it, so I didn't persevere with reading the thread).
There's on a little bit like it on the Miller's site. (I think this one is a devil-dog. It looks quite evil.)
http://www.millersantiquesguide.com/items/33667/1950s-60s-murano-glass-scottie-dog-with-black-glass/
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I saw a white one of these from an Italian seller about 6 months ago. He had it down as Martinuzzi from the 1940's. Might be a start even if not correct.
I was actually going to buy the dog but unfortunately it went out of my price range at the time.
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I don't think anyone knows who did most of these dogs. I have a feeling that many companies did their own versions. Archimede Seguso may have done the original dogs, but they were distinctive with their long noses and hanging heads. Trying to find attributions on them is very difficult if not impossible, so most just call them Murano glass. ICET does some of them, but they are easy to pick out. Yours looks like Murano glass to me.
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There have been a few listed on ebay the last couple of weeks , at least one listed as Toffolo i believe it said signed ? i must have a look at completed listings . :-\
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I saw those on eBay, but I don't remember if any were signed. The Toffolos of Murano do/did lamp work. Cesare, who still makes glass, does elegant forms unlike these dogs. These dogs look like furnace creations to me, so I wouldn't have even considered the Toffolos. There may be a Toffolo I haven't read about, however. Maybe the one that set up shop in the UK? I don't know a lot about him beyond the human figures they made.
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I only know of Franco Toffolo - (who has been in the uk - at Caithness here in Scotland and latterly, in retirement, with Willie Manson and "a Scottish Glassmaker", also in Scotland) but he is now fully retired and living in England. I know his work can be very exhuberant, and that he has tremendous skill, but I never considered him for these dogs. Never say never, though!
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Well i do take ebay attributions with a pinch of salt but thought it worth mentioning .
I have just looked on ebay completed listings , very interesting one guy has sold about 20 of them he says two of them have the Toffolo labels but doesnt show them nos 3208434223192 and 320844707252 there is one from another seller and other items as well listed Toffolo , i just put Tofollo into venetian murano glass . voila Have a look please and comments . ps He mentions G Toffolo and uranium or similar
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There's a little about three of the Toffolos at http://www.toffolo.com/en/curriculum_vitae/. Giacoma worked at Venini, so he did furnace work most likely. The son Florina turned to flame work, which Cesare also does. I wonder if Giacoma may have started his own company. I can't imagine someone working for Venini, then making the dogs, though. But who knows.
Franco Toffolo's middle initial is G. This sounds like a mystery that needs to be solved. Perhaps a Toffolo did do one of these dogs and we are seeing a lumping effect that comes from a single attribution.
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I know Franco has about 60 years of experience as a glassmaker - and he is finally, fully retired now. I don't know his actual age. Possibly a lot older than he looks. (He only looks about 60.)
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Anita i am glad you have shown interest maybe we can solve it , i will contact the seller tomorrow to see if he has more info on the labels , you know as well as i do when times are getting tough if an item sells well it can be a Maestros bread and butter and feed his family till times pick up . :thup:
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Some of the dogs look so awful that I have a hard time believing they are anything but pieces made for export. But then someone had to make those pieces, too. The shaggy dogs with the egg yolk eyes are so ugly. Many of the shaggy dogs are masterful and pretty, but some are just dreadful.