Barovier & Toso Murano Art Glass Figure

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Barovier & Toso Murano Art Glass Figure

About the Item

Presenting a lovely Barovier and Toso Murano art glass figure of a woman carrying a large corn on the cobb. By the world renowned maker of Barovier & Toso and probably made in the 1960’s. Gorgeous frosted glass with 24 carat gold flecks and highlights. The figure is a good size standing at 11.5 inches tall. One minor chip to the underside of one of the corn kernels but not visible (only exhibited by touch) and does not significantly detract from the piece as otherwise it is near mint. Barovier & Toso is an Italian company that specializes in Venetian glass. The company is one of the oldest family businesses in the world, founded in 1295 as Barovier. “The name Barovier derives from the term berroviere (highwayman/policman), which indicates the armigero (person entitled to bear arms) guarding the captain of the people. It is probable that some Barovier, originally from Treviso, settled in Murano around 1291, when a law of the Republic imposed the concentration on the island of all glass furnaces.” Jacobello was the first member of the Barovier family to work glass at this time. It is thought that the company originated in Treviso. The Toso family had been established in Murano since around 1350. In the 1400s Angelo Barovier created glass objects which are currently preserved in various museums. Angelo is recognized as significant for uniting the knowledge which had been developed and handed down by family Barovier. He was not only considered and artist but a scientist. The company became Ferro Toso Vetrerie Artistiche Riunite S.A in 1936 when Vetreria Artistica Barovier merged with Ferro Toso, specializing in crystalline glass, mother-of-pearl glass, and gold-free cornelian red glass.. In 1942, the company was renamed Barovier & Toso. In 1919–1920, 30 year old designer Ercole Barovier began a 50-year career as the artistic director of Barovier & Toso. “After studying medicine and working as a radio operator during World War One he joined the family firm in 1920 when he and his brother Nicolo took over the management from their father Benvenuto. From 1927 Ercole was the main designer and from 1934, when Nicolo left the company, (he was) also the sole owner.” While Barovier did not have formal training as a glassblower, his artistic designs produced objets d’art that have become the most critically acclaimed in the history of Ercole – Barovier. In 1930 he produced his award-winning “Primavera” series. “The Primavera series … is distinguished by a milky white ‘craquelé‘ glass with the addition of black or blue pasta vitrea trim (“opaque colored glass whose consistency is made to appear like ceramic”) and decoration. There was a very limited production of this series due to the fact that it was a result of a glass mixture obtained accidentally so it could never be replicated.” One example of this series, a Primavera Pigeon, was sold at auction for GBP 275,000 (approximately $360,000 USD, not inclusive of the buyer’s premium) on October 16, 2019. Barovier continued to produce innovative designs of which the “Lenti” vase series is an example. “Lenti” was produced in 1940. This vase was a Dual ‘layer’ vase. This type of vase is sometimes referred to as ‘cased’. “Cased glass combines glass layers of contrasting color, or a colored layer blown with a clear one. The interior layer is, in effect, encased in the exterior … Looking into the interior of a cased object will reveal a color different than that of the exterior. One of the first known examples of cased glass, the Portland Vase, dates from the reign of Roman emperor Caesar Augustus.” The first outer layer of the Lenti vase consisted of a series of clear thick convex semi-globular forms in which small thin leaves of pure gold are suspended. The inner thin layer of the vase was made of a brightly colored glass. The clear outer portion of the vase reflects the color of the inner vase while creating an optical illusion (due to the magnification effect of the convex shaped glass) of large ‘moving’ gold leaves. This series was produced in colors that vary and include cerulean blue, aqua blue, emerald green, lime green and crimson red. Barovier & Toso, under the direction, of Ercole Barovier, won numerous awards during the 1940s and 1950s for innovations in the murrine technique.[19] Murrine technique begins with the layering of colored liquid glass, heated to 1500-1700F or above, which is then stretched into long rods called canes. When cooled, these canes are then sliced in cross-sections, which reveals the layered pattern. A 9+1/2-inch high vase created by the Murrine technique by Ercole Barovier and described as a “1930, clear murrines (vase) edged in red with aventurine” was offered at auction on May 20, 2014. “Prior to sale estimates from the auction house gave an anticipated value of $ 15,000 – 20,000 (USD). The final bid was $ 317,000 (USD) not inclusive of the buyer’s premium. Buyer’s premium at Fine art auctions houses will generally add an additional 20-25% (of the final winning bid amount) to the final total price. In the early 1990s, Barovier & Toso manufactured the chandeliers in the Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca.

Creator:
Barovier&Toso (Manufacturer)
Dimensions:
Height: 11.5 in (29.21 cm)Width: 7.5 in (19.05 cm)Depth: 4.5 in (11.43 cm)
Style:
Art Deco (In the Style Of)
Materials and Techniques:
Art Glass,Gold Leaf,Hand-Crafted
Place of Origin:
Italy
Period:
Mid-20th Century
Date of Manufacture:
1960
Condition:
Wear consistent with age and use. Minor losses. One very minor chip to a corn kernel. Not visible to the naked eye and only identified through touch. Also, it is on the underside of the corn cobb. It does not detract from the piece and otherwise the piece is near mint.
Seller Location:
Dallas, TX
Reference Number:
1stDibs: LU3978124307452

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Barovier&Toso

Partnerships come and go within the community of glass-making artisans on the Venetian island of Murano, where business relationships seem as complex as the shifting alliances in the notoriously acrimonious Italian parliament. Formed in 1942 by members of families with centuries of experience in the craft, Barovier&Toso has proven to be one of the most enduring and prosperous Italian glass manufactories of recent decades. Under the nearly 50-year artistic directorship of cofounder Ercole Barovier (1889–1974), the company created buoyant traditional pieces such as chandeliers, sconces and other lighting fixtures, and it pioneered an array of innovative modernist glass designs with bold colors, patterns and surfaces.

The Barovier dynasty began in 1295, when Jacobello Barovier, mentioned in historical documents as a master glassblower, began pinching, cutting, blowing and twisting a molten mixture of sand and minerals into incandescent works of art. It remained entirely family-owned until the mid-20th century, when it merged with another glassworks to become Barovier&Toso.

To appeal to gentler, more conservative tastes, Barovier&Toso produced a range of lilting, sinuous lighting pieces that are often described as embodying “Liberty Style” — the Italian term for Art Nouveau, taken from the name of famed London department store Liberty & Co., which promoted 19th-century organic textile designs and Arts and Crafts-style furniture in the manner of William Morris. The hallmarks of the style in Barovier&Toso works are elements of glass in the shape of thick leaves, fronds and flower petals, deployed along with other naturalistic ornament in sconces, pendants and chandeliers.

Ercole Barovier began his personal aesthetic transition toward modernism in the 1930s with his Primavera series of vases and animal sculptures — idiosyncratic milky-white and clear glass filled with tiny bubbles and hairline interior fissures that he produced for Artisti Barovier, a firm headed by his father and uncle. Later, with Barovier&Toso, he would explore such novel styles as the mosaic-like Pezzato glass; fluid Spiral patterns; the pebbly textured Barbarico line and the complex, layered and highly colored abstractions of the Oriente series of vases and bowls.

Traditional or modern, Barovier&Toso — still under family control — has produced one of the finest and most diverse catalogues of Murano glass in the last 100 years.

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