Clear and blue glass Venetian or Façon de Venise winged glass
Price on request
Global shipping available
- Period
- 17th century
- Material
- Clear glass, blue glass
- Height
- 17.8 cm
- Diameter
- 8.6 cm
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Description
This clear and blue glass Venetian or Façon de Venise glass has a funnel shaped bowl. The bowl and stem are joined by a merese. The hollow stem consists of a flattened knop on an inverted baluster. Both sides are applied with blue wings with six colourless pincered ornaments with a waffle pattern. The glass is raised on a conical, downwardly folded foot. The bowl is decorated with a diamond point-engraving of a bird and floral motifs.
From the early Middle Ages, Venetian craftsmen specialized in glassblowing, developing procedures for blowing very thin and refined glass. The hot glass furnaces in the middle of the city posed a fire hazard, and in 1291 the glass industry was therefore moved by decree of the city government to the island of Murano. In this way, the city was protected, and more important: the secrets of the magnificent Venetian glass were protected. Glassblowers were not allowed to leave the island, under penalty of death, and were in fact imprisoned on Murano. The techniques and composition of the various types of glass, including the colorless and wafer-thin cristallo which was discovered in the fifteenth century, had to remain a Venetian secret. Despite these measures, glass blowers did leave Venice and settled throughout Northern Europe. With their knowledge and skills they produced glass ‘à la façon de Venise’ there. Venetian influences and local influences fused in these glasses. The blown glassware from Venice is known for its high quality and beauty, and the ‘façon de Venise’ is no less than that.
Diameter bowl: 8.6 cm, diameter: foot 8.2 cm.
