Fossilfly Imports – Murano Glass Blog

The man who gives glass class
Shanghai Daily News
March 30, 2005

The glory of the restoration of the historic building of Bund 18 is in the way the glassmaker’s art has been applied throughout the renovation.
Zhao Feifei talks with the architect responsible for the transformation.
From the moment you step into the entrance of Bund 18 — an iconic building of the Shanghai jazz scene back in the 1930s — the first thing to catch the eye is the beautiful three-meter-high red chandelier in the foyer. This extravagant fixture was created by the building’s restorer, Filippo Gabbiani, in his workshop back in Venice.
“It took several glassmaking artisans to blow it into shape,” says Gabbiani proudly. He’s the chief architect of Kokaistudios who renovated Bund 18 and also a descendant of the Gabbiani family of glassmaking craftsmen. “The amazing thing is that it weighs only 100 kilograms. Venetian people have a special way to make glass light and transparent.” And his skills are not only on the ground floor of Bund 18 — the decor of Bar Rouge on the 7th floor features 22 small red chandeliers and they blend in a romantic way into the ambience of the top floor of the historic building. To display his own fascination and pride in Venetian glassmaking, Gabbiani has opened a posh boutique on the second floor. Gabbiani glass carries on the age-old special technique of earlier centuries.

Each piece is painstakingly handmade by masters in Murano, an island near Venice, incorporating a variety of styles ranging from reproductions of 18th- and 19th-century Venetian pieces to modern and original designs. Meticulously crafted vases and vessels, decanters and goblets, paperweights, lamps and even jewelry are displayed.

Many of them are limited-edition pieces. The price of a vase can vary from 4,000 yuan (US$480) to 20,000 yuan. “Not everybody understands glass, so I show it as if it were jewelry or a painting,” says the 36-year-old designer. “I like my customers to appreciate glass the way they would if visiting a museum or an art gallery.” The store is Gabbiani’s first in Asia. His showroom in Italy is near the 15th-century Palazzo Bragadin, which is the ancient location of the home of the legendary merchant Marco Polo’s family. “At the age of seven, I read a book of Marco Polo’s travels in China. From then on, I started dreaming about this ancient country,” he says.

In 1991, Gabbiani arrived in China. He rode on bicycle, horseback, went by boat across the desert in Inner Mongolia, the mountains of Tibet and the rivers of Yunnan Province. This trip reinforced Gabbiani’s dream and desire to live and work in China. He quit several projects back home and moved to China. His first job was in southern China’s Guangdong Province, on an architectural planning project for a lifestyle building complex owned by a Hong Kong developer. After that, he landed the job to restore Bund 18 to its former glory. The Gabbiani family history covers generations of artists, painters, sculptors and art dealers over several centuries. The family operates art galleries in Paris, London and New York. “My mother started to make glass 30 years ago and my grandfather, who is a famous watercolor painter, also made glass,” says Gabbiani.

Now in Murano, Gabbiani family has a team of about 50 glassmaking artisans working for the company. “Venice still harbors ancient glassmaking secrets,” says Gabbiani. “Glassmaking traditions pass from father to son, from master to apprentice. Competition is fierce. The industry is of such importance that, in the past, a traitorous glassblower who revealed his secrets would be punished by exile or even death.” Italian glass craftsmanship is famous worldwide. Venice is crammed with glass shops and it’s estimated that there are at least 1,000 in San Marco alone. Murano has always been a secretive island and although it’s only a five-minute vaporetto ride from the center of Venice, it’s mysterious even to Venetians. A major glass center throughout the centuries, Murano has more than 250 glass furnaces, many of them operated by two to five artisans. Fewer than 20 furnaces have more than 50 employees. Today, the process remains much the same except that the furnaces are heated by natural gas, not wood, and the ingredients come from different localities. The tools themselves have been unchanged for centuries, dating back to the Middle Ages.

Glassblowing in Murano is usually more expensive than Chinese, Czech or Indian. It’s partly because the Venetians were the first to produce clear glass and the Venetians, being master traders, sold the glass around the world from the days of Marco Polo. The style and artistry of Venetian glass has continued to maintain its value and reputation throughout the world. “In 1291, fear of fire moved Venetian glassmaking to this island, where many of the factories remain today,” says Gabbiani. During the era of the Venetian Republic, the Doge of Venice granted special privileges to the Muranesi. They had their own “Golden Book” which listed the most important families, creating a local hierarchy which still exists — unofficially — today. Keeping the glassmakers cloistered on an island, swearing them to secrecy and showering them with riches and titles of nobility practically guaranteed the Venetians control of the marketplace.

The art of glassmaking is nearly as old as the Pyramids of Egypt dating back about 3,500 years. The art of blowing glass is more recent and began some 2,000 years ago. Over the centuries, the secrets of glassmaking — what ingredients to mix together and in what quantities — have been lost and rediscovered. Venice’s best-known glass has a distinctive swirl pattern in several colors. “There are mainly two types of glass in the world: crystal, which is heavy and very difficult to give color, and Venetian glass, which is light and transparent. Red glass is the most expensive. That’s because when you make it, a lot of glass has to be thrown away,” explains Gabbiani.

Article © English.Eastday.com

Full-blown excellence

December 18, 2004
BY ROGER GREEN
Ann Arbor News Bureau

For more than 700 years the island of Murano has been the center of Venetian glassmaking, supplying splendid, decorative and functional items to connoisseurs worldwide. But operations on the storied island have not always been calm or smooth.
Indeed, by the beginning of the 20th century, years of repeating traditional forms had caused the quality and popularity of Murano’s blown glass to decline. Then, a succession of innovative glass blowers propitiously reinvigorated the waning art, challenging tradition with inventive techniques and concessions to contemporary styles and tastes. By the 1950s, Murano glass had redoubled its original excellence and cachet. The century of rebirth is the time frame represented in “Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection,” at the Detroit Institute of Arts through Feb. 27. Comprising glass treasures amassed by New York collectors Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, the traveling exhibit includes some 200 items by 40 artists.
On view are vases, bowls, goblets and stoppered decanters whose gem-bright colors often appear as spirals or patches in contrasting hues. Alternately transparent and opaque, the disparate items have simple geometric or organic shapes, and sometimes are patterned or textured in relief. Lighted showcases set off the glass objects advantageously.

Among the 20th-century innovators represented are the manufacturers Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin, who established a successful partnership in 1921, but four years later parted ways to establish independent glassworks (the still-flourishing Venini firm has sponsored the current exhibit’s tour). The list of inventive glass artists includes Giuseppe Barovier, Napoleone Martinuzzi and Carlo Scarpa.

Barovier’s circa 1919 “Mosaic Vase” is at once visually stunning and instructive, demonstrating how the artist updated an age-old technique. The surface of the vase is patterned with repeated spirals – most are yellow – created by the “a murrine” technique. According to it, slices of glass rods are embedded in the surface of a vessel, producing geometric or blossom-like motifs. Though developed in ancient Rome, the technique imbues the “Mosaic Vase” with modern air – that of art nouveau as expressed in the decorative, patterned painting of Gustav Klimt.
Martinuzzi’s “Ten-Handled Vase” of 1930 illustrates another form of experimentation. The dark green vase is matte-textured and has a grainy, irregular surface, attained by adding petroleum to molten glass. The bubbling action caused by the petroleum explains the descriptive term “pulegoso,” meaning pock-marked, applied to the glass.

Scarpa, one of the most important glass artists of the 20th century, is well represented in the exhibit. In particular, Scarpa is known for roughing up surfaces by etching or treating them with corrosive chemicals. His works also are known for their simple, geometric shapes, although his delightful “Seashells” of 1942 draw inspiration from the natural world.
Noteworthy, too, are Fulvio Bianconi’s and Paolo Venini’s “Handkerchief Vases” of 1950. These ethereal-appearing creations initially were molten-glass discs that, upended, gravitated to earth in folds evoking sheer cloth.
Viewers may recognize affinities between the “Handkerchief Vases” and the more recent work of American glass artist Dale Chihuly. That’s appropriate since, like many international artists, Chihuly studied and worked in Murano’s glass factories.
Murano’s artistic tradition continues then, in countries all over the globe. Viewers are privileged to see, showcased, the 20th century innovations that rejuvenated Venetian glass art.

The Detroit Institute of Arts is at 5200 Woodward Ave. Hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday, and 10 a.m.- 5 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. For more information, call (313) 833-7900 or access www.dia.org,

Article © 2004 Ann Arbor News.

Murano: Where Innovation and Craft Meet
Collection of glassworks from legendary Venetian island illuminate the Detroit Institute of Arts with exhibition.
By Janet Bellotto
Tandem 12/5/04-12-12/04

The small island of Murano, just a vaporetto ride from Venice, opens up to creations using a magical medium that’s hot, gorgeous and at times very fragile – that’s Murano glass. It is a production place that flourished at the end of the 13th century and has developed with innovation between designers and craftsmen. Red Hot and Very Cool is an exhibition that illuminates the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) with over 200 glass artworks from the Olnick Spanu Collection.
A glassblower – if you’ve ever had the chance to meet one or hang around a glass furnace – are on their off-time moonstruck, but you’d have to be to manipulate a molten liquid at over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit. Yet their understanding of gravity and fluid mobility, along with a sense of design, has enamoured the world over for centuries. So it is no surprise that a successful piece relies on the collaboration between designer and master glassworker, and is the common working habit in Murano.

Murano glassmakers have been known for their development and refined technologies such as crystalline glass, enameled glass (smalto) multicolored glass (millefiori), and milk glass (lattimo). As well, in the early years, they were the only people in Europe who knew how to make a mirror.

Cappellin & Company, Venini & Company and Artisti Barovier & Company, are among the companies that helped to create what has become known as Venetian glass.
Paolo Venini was a lawyer from Milan who came to Venice in 1921. He formed a partnership with Giacomo Cappellin, a Venetian antiques dealer, which lasted for four years.

Together they started a glassworks, Cappellin Venini & C. and brought in Vittorio Zecchin as art director – this began the revolution of Venetian glass design. They produced simple shapes in transparent colours, compared to the heavily decorated designs of that time.

Much earlier the Barovier brothers formed Artisti Barovier in 1878, whose family history of glassmakers dates back to the 13th century. Although the company changed names several times, known today as Barovier & Toso, it was strong in its technique development and filing of patents. Going beyond kitschy paperweights and glass beads, the collection that New Yorkers Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu have been pruning has achieved international prominence with more than 500 pieces. It is a collection, primarily consisting of vessels – vases created from 1910 to the present, which was inspired by the purchase of Paolo Venini’s hourglass Clessidra in the early ’90s.

“Over the past two decades, glass has become a focus of collecting in the United States generally, but nowhere more so than in the Detroit area,” said Graham W. J. Beal, director of the DIA. “Presenting such a distinctive collection as Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu’s at the DIA has a particular resonance as is demonstrated by the group of related pieces from local collections.”

Besides boasting some of the artists of the last century – Carlo Scarpa, Thomas Stearns, Paolo Venini – contemporary works by Laura Diaz de Santillana, Lino Tagliapietra and Giorgio Vigna are juxtaposed in the exhibition offering up an evolution of the art of glassmaking in Murano.

Scarpa’s work, for example, favours vivid colours. He preferred to “study” with the master glass workers of Murano and along with friend Paolo Venini created innovative designs. The works in this exhibition are exemplary of this.
“Seduction”, the main factor that inspires the collectors in choosing objects, is apparent in Scarpa’s work Trasparente, 1926-1931 and in Giorgio Vigna’s Fuochi d’acqua, 2002.

Massimo Vignelli, also in charge of exhibition design, is well known for his glassmaking skills and is a featured artist in the exhibition. Fungo and Vetro e argento were created while he worked for Murano’s most prominent glass workshop Venini and Company.

While the glassblower faces the light of the glory hole (the furnace opening) it is the manipulation between molten glass, blowpipe, marver and vision that brings the tune of fluidity to beauties found at the DIA.

Red Hot and Very Cool runs at Detroit Institute of Arts, 200 Woodward Ave, December 10 to February 27, 2005. Visit www.dia.org for more information and a list of coinciding programmes.

© 2004 Tamdem News

Murano Glass Repair and Replacement

Have you broken your favorite piece of Murano Art Glass, or has your Murano Glass Chandelier been broken in a move? If so, we offer the following information to collectors, so they can bring their family heirlooms back to life.

Giovanni Nason, a member of the Nason glass blowing dynasty in Murano, Venice, has been repairing Murano glass for the past 35 years in his Maryland shop. His family has been creating Murano Glass in Italy since the 1600’s, and since his emigration to the United States, he has repaired many glass items, ranging from Venetian Mirrors to Art Glass that has been in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Glass repairs, depending on the severity of the damage, often require heating, epoxy injections, grinding and polishing. Mr. Nason also repairs less severely damaged items, including chipped glass and crystal stemware, bowls and other serving items. However, items repaired with epoxy cannot be used for serving and eating food. The epoxies and other binding agents used to rejoin broken pieces can be hazardous, and don’t interact well with food, heat or cleaning products.

For items that require a replacement piece, Mr. Nason is in frequent contact with his family in Murano, and often works with them to have a missing piece recreated. In a recent conversation, Mr. Nason suggested that the easiest way to contact him is by phone, as he usually has many questions that are more easily answered in the course of a conversation.

Giovanni Nason Glass and Crystal Restoration Center
10 Overpond Court, Potomac MD 20854-3037
301-340-2624

A beginner’s Guide to Collecting Murano Glass !

Welcome to the world of Murano Glass collecting!Murano glass has a lot to offer the collector, a long lineage of artists dating back to the 12th century to the current maestri living and working in Murano, Venice. Collecting Murano glass also offers a collector a broad range of expressing their collecting whims, from traditional replicas of antique drinking glasses and 18th century chandeliers to more modern Picasso inspired art glass. All of this is bound together by a medium that has become much more popular, glass.

Where do I Start?
One of the best ways to learn about Murano Glass is to visit a collection or search the web, and do some research on the Internet about the pieces and styles of Murano Glass that you find most attractive. Search your desires and figure what types of glass you like, traditional or more modern art inspired? Is there a particular artist or style of glass working that you admire? Do you like millefiori? Paperweights? Figurines? Sculptures? One of the appeals of glass collecting in general is the many unique and ingenious methods used to create different designs and effects. After a short while you should be able to ascertain which type of design or technique of glass working you favor and move your collection in that direction.

Buying Murano Glass

It is always best to buy authentic Murano Glass pieces, as they are more valuable, and it’s always nice
to know that your piece was created with care by the Italian masters. Unfortunately much of the Murano Glass on the internet is “Murano Style” which generally, means that it was made somewhere other than Murano, usually in Asia or Brazil. Authentic Murano Glass is a much higher quality, and after growing used to collecting Murano glass, you will be able to identify authentic Murano Glass at a glance.

However, over the Internet, things are often not what they seem, and you cannot easily inspect the item you are interested in. What it comes down to is the reputation and honest of the retailer. Have they been selling Murano glass for a while? Do they have a good reputation? Do they sell only Murano glass or a little of everything, including Murano Glass? How long have they been in business? Do they offer a generous return policy?

Promovetro the consortium of Glass Blowers in Venice is trying to stem the flood of counterfeit imports from Asia.  A difficult to counterfeit label on the glass identifies which furnace made the item by using a numeric system. For more information on this initiative, visit their website for a list of member companies, and their identification numbers of each furnace. This new image is beginning to replace the gold foil oval “Made in Murano, Italy” familiar to so many.

Buying Pre-Owned Murano Glass

We recommend that collectors investing a sizable sum of money, buy from reputed retailer or gallery, and ask for a certificate of authenticity showing the date of production and artists information. However for
the beginner, it is not necessary to jump right into collecting headfirst.  It is more realistic if you ease into collecting by learning all you can about the art and start small. A great resource for collecting vintage Murano Glass is eBay! Very often you can find pieces ranging from sculptures to jewelry, but again, make sure what you are purchasing is authentic Murano glass, with no “flea bites” or miniscule nicks , and attributable to a particular furnace. Beware of  “Murano Style” glass, as it is not authentic.  Once collecting glass gets in your blood, you will want to learn all you can about the different techniques of glass blowing and
how each technique is used to create a different result. You will begin to realize that you favor some techniques over others, and seek the company or artist that have made this technique their signature style.
Collecting Historic Murano Glass Many people purchase Murano glass for its aesthetic value, but also for its historical art significance. During the mid century period from the 1940’s through the 1960’s when Murano Art Glass was at its height, much of the glass from this era is sought after; especially from the more well know furnaces such as Venini. Many books address this type of Murano Glass, and it is typically sold by galleries.

Consider joining the free Murano Glass Forum, where you can post pictures and ask questions about your newly acquired collection!

In closing, collecting Murano  is a rewarding hobby, which can be passed on from generation to generation much like the techniques and traditions of the Murano Maestro!

Your
hosts,

Jena and Charlie

Italian influence in Contemporary Glass Show at Steuben New York

A current exhibit at the Steuben flagship store in New York City, curated by the Corning Museum of Glass, offers a great glimpse of how much the Murano maestros have influenced the American Art Glass movement since the 1960’s. The whole learning cycle started with Dale Chihuly, who interned with Venini beginning in 1968. This seminal event opened the floodgate of collaboration that has helped American glass artists master their craft and develop their own signature styles and techniques.

The exhibit, contained in one room is an excellent introduction to the many of the techniques traditionally attributed to Murano masters, including less often seen cold work techniques battutto and inciso. The difficult art of creating Murrine was also on displayed magnificently by Richard Marquis, whose recreation of the Lord’s prayer in murrine was amazing (see photo). I have seen initials, and maybe a few words or an image created in murrine, but the entire Lords prayer was impressive. I cannot imagine how difficult and time consuming it was to create. Dale Chihuly’s work was well represented with a few vases, and a wonderful diaphanous pink glass sculpture, reminiscent of a conch. My impression of the entire exhibit was one of wonderful craftsmanship, all of the glass was executed flawlessly, with a whimsical modern touch. The craftsmanship, passion, and technical mastery of each item are superb.

I should have taken better notes so I could properly attribute each photo to each artist, but below are photos of the exhibit, I annotated as much as I could. Additional artists whose works should also be credited include Dante Marioni, Philip Baldwin and Monica Guggisberg Sonja Blomdahl, William Gudenrath, Yoichi Ohira, Stephen Rolfe Powell, Katherine Gray, Isabelle Poilprez, Kait Rhoads, Marvin Lipofsky and Benjamin Moore.

If you happen to be in midtown Manhattan, and want to see a free exhibit of American Glass artists that use Venetian influenced techniques, stop by the Steuben store, located at 667 Madison Avenue. The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day except Sunday. There is no charge for admission to the show, which is open through July 30th 2005.

Museum features marvelous Murano glass

DEBBIE CAFAZZO AND LISA KREMER; The Tacoma News Tribune (9/3/04)

When New Yorker Nancy Olnick acquired her first piece of Murano glass more than 15 years ago at a Sotheby’s auction, it was an impulse buy. A half-cobalt blue, half-emerald green hourglass caught her eye. She placed a bid, then didn’t think about it until the auction house called to tell her the piece was hers. She brought it home, placed it next to an Andy Warhol painting and the bewitching began. That first piece launched a love affair with Murano glass for Olnick and her husband, Giorgio Spanu. Soon, they were traveling the world collecting examples of glass from Murano, an island in the Lagoon of Venice that traces its heritage in glassmaking back to the 13th century. Beginning Saturday, visitors to the Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art in Tacoma can share in the couple’s passion with an exhibit that includes more than 200 pieces from their personal collection. This is the only West Coast showing of the touring exhibit. It’s in Tacoma for nine weeks.
“To enter our collection, the glass has to be made on Murano – no matter where the artist is from,” Spanu said. Originally, the collection was intended to cover the 20th century, but as Spanu and Olnick delved deeper into the world of glass, they discovered new, young artists producing fabulous work. Thus, the exhibit spans the years 1914 to 2002. “It’s one of the most important collections of 20th-century glass in the world,” said Tina Oldknow, curator of modern glass at the Corning Glass Museum in New York. “It’s incredibly representative in terms of its breadth and depth of a period.” The exhibit was designed by Lella and Massimo Vignelli, with David Law, and is curated by Marino Barovier.

The collection is mainly vessels, with only a few glass figures. It’s arranged chronologically, beginning with a brightly colored piece produced around 1914 by Barovier and Co., one of Murano’s glass house dynasties, and ending with a nearly colorless glass and copper vase made by Giorgio Vigna in 2002. Walking through the exhibit is not only a tour through the history of glass art, but also of the major artistic and political movements of the 20th century.

From the boldly colored floral designs of the early part of the century, through the echoes of classicism and images of strength projected during the fascist 1930s to the boundless creativity unleashed following World War II and into the modern era, each of the glass pieces is a reflection of its times. Oldknow praised Olnick and Spanu for the variety of their collection. “They’re very rare in that many people who collect 20th and mid-century art don’t always collect contemporary,” she said. Spanu is a walking encyclopedia, whose knowledge of both the art of glassmaking and the artists – including Paolo Venini, Artisti Barovier, Carlo Scarpa, Thomas Stearns and others – is impressive. Where did he acquire it? “I read a lot,” he said with a smile. One reason the Olnick-Spanu collection is unusual is that glass art hasn’t always been considered high art, Oldknow said. “It’s always been allied with applied arts, or the decorative arts,” she said. “Until recently it hasn’t been used as sculpture. Like ceramics or fiber, these are subjects that have really expanded beyond their roots.” Art glass was never meant to be used, Spanu explained. “It is meant to embellish everybody’s life … to make your life richer,” he said. In the end, Spanu wants those who visit the museum to take away from the Murano exhibit the simplest of pleasures: beauty and peace of mind. “That’s why I have it,” he said. “To relax.”

If you go:

What: “Murano: Glass from the Olnick Spanu Collection”

Where: Museum of Glass: International Center for Contemporary Art, 1801 E. Dock St., Tacoma

When: Saturday through Nov. 7 Information: 253-284-4750; www.museumofglass.org

Also: Collectors Nancy Olnick, Giorgio Spanu and artist Benjamin Moore will offer a panel discussion about the exhibit at 2 p.m. Sunday.

Article © The News Tribune 2004