Topic: Venetian glass - is it really Venetian or is it an impostor

[thomas]

I bought this vase from a dealer at an antique show in the early 80's.  He specialized in furniture.  He bought a corner cupboard at an estate auction and this vase was in the cupboard and was included in the sale.  He had no interest in glass.  He said as far as he knew, it could be 100 years old or 1 year old.  He sold it cheap to move it.  There are several things that bother me about the vase.  1 - the color.  2 - it's relatively heavy.  I guess that treatment on the body of the vase would require thicker glass.  I have it stuck in my mind that all old Venetian glass is light and fragile???  3 - when I step back and look at it, the proportions seem to be off.  Whoever put the handles on was in a hurry, they don't even come close to being straight-on. The vase looks cloudy in some of the pictures but it is not.  In one picture I show it sitting beside a vase which I consider to be late 19th or very early 20th century Venetian glass.  To me, the color is right and it has a simple elegance the other vase doesn't have.    So I was wondering, is this Venetian glass and if so, is it early or more recent?  Or is it an impostor?  I'm leaning toward "impostor".  What do you think?

[thomas]

Final photos.

[TxSilver]

Thomas, it looks Venetian to me. I have no idea who might have made it. The style of glass was popular in from the late 19th Century until the mid-20th. The lower part of the vase looks to have been molded using a balloton -- very popular for Venetian glass. It is not unusual at all for Venetian glass to be heavy. Many furnaces moved to heavier glass for most of their things during the 1930s. It being heavy makes me favor a later date for the piece. I wish we knew exactly what the vase is, but I think you are right thinking it Venetian.

[thomas]

Anita, thank you for your reply and the information.  I was hoping that it was not an impostor.  It certainly has a Venetian look.  I figured that if the general opinion was that it is Venetian glass, it would be a later dated piece.  When I say it's heavy, it's certainly not as heavy as some modern Swedish or similar glass.  But it is heavy when you compare it to the vase it's sitting beside in the 6th photo.  That vase is very light and fragile feeling when you pick it up.  I guess it's not fair to judge the one by the other.