Dino Martens -- Did he ever work at AVeM?

[TxSilver]

Quite often I see AVeM bowls that are said to be designed by Dino Martens. I have also seen a couple of sites on the internet that say he worked there. I haven't been able to find any official word that he designed anything there. Does anyone know if he worked there for sure? I have read several short biographies and can find no mention of AVeM. Maybe I need to find a longer biography... but the book is so expensive!

Anita

[boybob]

probably not - at the inception of AVeM (1932) Martens was working for Salviati - after that he was artisitc director of A. Toso from 44-63 - by then most of the time line for artisians was well documented... also most of AVeM lines do not reflect Martens signature type of designs...

[TxSilver]

I am glad you are on board, BoyBob. Maybe you can help. I have a fan vase on auction right now. It has mezza filigrana that looks like some of the work done by AVeM and Aureliano Toso. However, the base looks like Salviati. I have it listed as an uncertain, but I keep being pulled back to Salviati in my mind because of the base. Do you (or anyone else) have any ideas on this vase. What I wondered is could it be by Dino Martens when he worked with Salviati? I read that he worked there, but I haven't read exactly what he did while he was there.

This would probably be best in the ID forum, but it seemed to fit so well in this thread.

Anita

[boybob]

hiya - that vase looks like Barovier to me - give me a few sec and I will reply again - I need to go take a peeky at something...

[boybob]

venini - venini - venini... I thought I had remembered that particular execution of meza fili as barovieresque - but indeed it is in the genre of venini - there is a conical vase quite similiar included in Pinas Circa 50's Glass - the oddity is that she has included it in the book twice - once she attributes it as venini - and once she gives no attribution but gives it the same bv at $300-500 as she did the venini example - the venini makes sense to me in that if indeed it is his particular meza fili technique - he did use that type of foot on many of his stem lines - the folded over rim process... sowwy - that is as much help as I am going to be with it....

[TxSilver]

I knew I should have bought that book... I read a little about mezza filigrana at Venini. Carlo Scarpa was the only mention I could find. I haven't seen Scarpa's mezza before, but apparently it was his thing before he started making pulegosa and bollicene pieces.

I was leaning toward Salviati as the makers of the fan vase. But it may be a Venini artist. It is an interesting, pretty vase. I wish the designer had etched a name into it :-)

Thanks for looking into your book. I'll have to put the book onto my wish list. I have three books by her (Italian Glass, Fratelli Toso, and Seguso). I figured the 50s book would be too broad to be helpful. People refer to it a lot, though, so it is probably a very useful book.

Anita

[fossilfly]

probably not - at the inception of AVeM (1932) Martens was working for Salviati - after that he was artisitc director of A. Toso from 44-63 - by then most of the time line for artisians was well documented... also most of AVeM lines do not reflect Martens signature type of designs...

I also have not been able to find any info on Dino Martens working for AVeM, but you definitely see both names together on ebay. I checked a few books, and none made any mention of it at all in his or AVEM's bios.

[TxSilver]

What may have happened is that one person sold one of the tutti frutti's as Dino Martens, then other people began copying the misattribution. I see that happening a good bit on eBay. Some of the people who sell on eBay also have internet stores with information about Dino Martens designing for AVeM. I know that Nason and Radi did many murrine pieces with foil for AVeM. Maybe one or both of them designed the tutti frutti type pieces. I am not comfortable attributing them to Martens without some official record that he worked at AVeM while he was at Aureliano Toso.

Anita

[TxSilver]

I have seen 3-4 mezza filigrana pieces that look like the vase in this thread. There was a lamp identified as Fratelli Toso (even though the label remnant wasn't one that FT used). There was a vase attributed to Dino Martens -- an understandable attribution. Then there was one attributed to Venini. Finally there is a vase with a readable label -- AVeM. It was the company that I thought was most likely because the style of the vase looked like a picture of bowls in Italian Glass Century 20. Mystery of the vase probably solved:)

This week I bought Leslie Pina's Fifties Glass. She has one statement that a random filigree/cane AVeM vase may have been designed by Dino Martens, so he may have worked with a couple of his old cronies there. Murano is a small place, so it wouldn't be surprising if he did.

Anita

[glassman]

This week I bought Leslie Pina's Fifties Glass. She has one statement that a random filigree/cane AVeM vase may have been designed by Dino Martens, so he may have worked with a couple of his old cronies there. Murano is a small place, so it wouldn't be surprising if he did.

Anita

Thats interesting, I never realized that Dino Martens was affiliated with AVeM, but maybe only slightly as you suggest. Im sure that this happens frequently, as the island is tiny!

[TxSilver]

I found another reference this evening that ties Dino Martens to AVeM, so maybe there is something to it. Kovels has this listing: http://www.kovels.com/priceguide/kovels_glass-venetian/1999/bowl/820187.html?type=pf
I believe Kovels is usually pretty accurate, so maybe Martens did do some designs for AVeM. As glassman said, Murano is a tiny island.

Anita