pulegoso dog

[biddaeverything]

hi folks,

i have this rather large pulegoso dog sculpture. i've seen similar pieces attributed variously and am hoping that one of you will recognize him and be able to identify the maker. my guess is that he probably dates c.1930s. dimensions: 9" (23cm) long, 8.5" (21.5cm) tall. any ideas?

full side view
funny face

bidda

[TxSilver]

I saw this dog once recently. I believe it was attributed to Barovier or Barbini, but didn't have any label. I wish I could remember where I saw the dog. I thought it might be either Murano or Czech. I had not seen it before. It is a pretty nice dog, whoever made it.

Anita

[biddaeverything]

Originally Posted by TxSilver

I saw this dog once recently. I believe it was attributed to Barovier or Barbini, but didn't have any label. I wish I could remember where I saw the dog. I thought it might be either Murano or Czech. I had not seen it before. It is a pretty nice dog, whoever made it.

Anita

thanks Anita i think it's so ugly it's cute

maybe you saw it on ebay before i bought it lol. the seller attributed it to barovier but i take that with less than a grain of salt. i saw a pulegoso scotty of about the same proportions on trocadero attributed to Martinuzzi but that one seems to have foamier glass, no aventurine and the features are different. i know i've seen another with the ribbed body like mine, attributed to another Murano maker but i can't find it to save my life (i'll keep looking, though). though he feels old (pre-1950) to me, i'm not convinced that he's a Murano made pup; not until (if) i'm able to find enough to support the idea.

bidda

[Paradisetrader]

You are wise to be wary of unreferenced attributions on Ebay but there can be no doubt that this piece is Murano and I am baffled as to why you should think otherwise. Everything about it screams Murano.
Peter

[biddaeverything]

Peter,
thanks so much for saying so. any thoughts on a potential maker? there's another one on ebay presently 170113399549 that's the same shape but different color, attributed to Seguso (by the seller who, when contacted replied that she saw it in one of her "italian glass reference books" but didn't respond when asked if she remembered which one).

whoever made him, he proudly stands guard over the tea cup on my side table, much to my husband's chagrin (and, yes, i do think it's a bit odd that i've chosen to affectionately anthropomorphize a somewhat homely chunk of glass but i live in an apartment and can't have a "real" dog ha ha)

so, to make a long post longer... any direction on discovering this pooch's origin would be most appreciated opinions, ideas, feelings and suppositions are also, of course, welcome.

thanks,

bidda

[TxSilver]

Bidda, I ran across some things that were called griffon dogs on the internet the other night. Here is one by A. Seguso: http://www.antichitapittarello.com/e...riffon-dog.htm
I thought about you when I saw the dogs. I should have sent you the link right away. One of the dogs looked like yours. I'll have to do a bit more searching for griffon (and griffin) dogs.

Anita

[fossilfly]

Anita, Nice find with the site! I'm going to copy the link in the Murano sites thread. Not surprisingly, the Murano Sites thread is the most popular on the forum, so I always like to add newly discovered sites for people to explore.

[fossilfly]

The dog looks familiar to me, I believe there is a similar one in Animals in Glass: a Murano Bestiary. I'll take a look this evening.

[biddaeverything]

thanks Anita i've seen some of the griffon dogs and thought them similar as well. the one you found is awefully cute i wish the seller included a little more info about it, such as dimensions or support for attribution.

here's another griffon but it's a funny (weird, not ha ha) photo and there's only one. as with all the dogs i've been finding (except for the ebay one), there seems to be more differences than similarities (ie. many have collars, single color eyes, shags behind the legs or on the body instead of the ribbing...)

i suppose at this point i'm leaning tentitively toward an A Seguso attribution ... until further evidence can confirm or refute it.

i really do appreciate yours and everyone else's input - beyond invaluable.

have a lovely, lovely day,

bidda

[TxSilver]

I wondered what a griffon dog was, so I googled it. One of the sites I came up with was http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/wirehair...inggriffon.htm. The last picture gives me an idea of why Seguso's dog has the hairy jaw.

The pictures I had seen earlier were in an auction catalog. I thought I had bookmarked it, but I can't find the bookmark. It may be lost in the jungle of bookmarks that I have on the computer. Sometimes finding a bookmark is about as easy as finding a web page.

Anita