Topic: Bought in San Marco Square

[langhaugh]

RosiePosie: 

You're right, the hedgehog is Exbor. I assumed the company that Greenacres was talking about is Pauly & C (no "e" between "l" and "y") as Tambam has it, as that company does have a store on  San Marco Square. Wikipedia has an a very good summary of the company at this link. The vase is completely consistent with what Pauley produced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauly_%26_C._%E2%80%93_Compagnia_Venezia_Murano


David

[greenacres_2]

They had one more at the time I bought it. It was very tiny and turquiose. I kick myself whenever I think of it.

[greenacres_2]

There was never a sticker on it.

[Artofvenice]

Hi guys, I have the answer!  

Pauly company buys most part of their items from different glassmakers. They had also a small furnace producing some classic glassworks (filigree, crystal and gold, etc., etc.) up to some years ago. I rember that approx. 10 years ago they had De Santi as master glassmaker: very good glassblower...
In the last 4-5 years the company changed owners and it looks they reduced a lot their core business (they did some huge auctions to rid the stock), but they still have their points of sales.

Concerning this vase... The answer is...  
3 Fiori!
Yes, the company who made some of the nicer paperweights during the '90s and beginning '000s.
During the last years of activity they tried to use some of their nice and complex murrina canes for some small production of vases.
The result was good due to the murrinas are very superior than the usual murrinas by F3 and Moretti, but the glassblowing technique of the two guys working there, was not so good and the pieces were a little too heavy and not very simmetrical. This problem is evient expecially when they tried to make the vases a little bigger.

I bought and sold some of these works, in Venice, to private collectors and also on the web.

Knowing the original wholesale value, I can tell you that you bought this piece for a reasonable price. They offered several pieces in consignment (they were not known on the market as "vases producers") and, after the company has closed (mid '000s), it is possible that some pieces were lost in some shops without to be payed (in this case I can explain this price...)

May be I still have some old photos of their vases in some hard disk. If I will find them I will post here...

Only a small but interesting detail... Also if they can be considered at 110% as Murano glass, the glass used to make these wonderful murrinas has a different "coefficiente di dilatazione" (I don't know how to say in english) than the usual Murano glass normally used to blow goblets, vases etc.

Ciao

Alex
www.artofvenice.com

[greenacres_2]

So is it possible to still buy a piece?

[Lustrousstone]

Not made by 3 Fiori; they closed down in 2004.

[greenacres_2]

I see. Thank you. It is so delicate, it attracts you to it. I love glass and have many peices, but this is one of my favorites. I'll have to take a picture of the other vase I purchased. It is in a beach house that we own. It is winter and we don't go very often.

[Artofvenice]

So is it possible to still buy a piece?

All the pieces I had are sold out, but somewhere in Venice or Murano it is possible there are few. Not easy to find.
The production was limited in time (one year more or less) and it was not the company core production (they were at 99% paperweights producers).
I rember that they made two styles: one  more expensive with all murrinas of the same pattern and one, a little cheaper, with mixed patterns, as your one.

Ciao

Ale
www.artofvenice.com

[KevinH]

... Also if they can be considered at 110% as Murano glass, the glass used to make these wonderful murrinas has a different "coefficiente di dilatazione" (I don't know how to say in english) than the usual Murano glass normally used to blow goblets, vases etc.

"coefficiente di dilatazione" translates to English as "coefficient of expansion" ... but I think I prefer the Italian, it sounds somehow more "poetic".

[Artofvenice]

Hi,
here below the few images I was able to find back. these are the higher quality and, as you can see, the Murrinas are not random, but all of the same style. I'm sorry, but I'm not able to find the same than your ones (too many hard disks and too many photos....)
They were made by 3 fiori between the 2001 and the closedown.
The very first pieces were more as the ones in photos, than they made something less expensive with the random pattern, so I can extimate your one as probably made in second half 2002 or 2003. In the last time they tried to develop more the vase ( blowing more and making the final vase bigger in proportion with the fused pattern size), but in this way the result was a less clean and compact pattern, more or less as in your one, if compared with the very first I'm posting.
If I will find other images I will post...

Sincerely

Alex
www.artofvenice.com