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1930s Venini Chandelier

Name: 1930s Venini Chandelier
Brand: Venini
Price: 38000 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

This late 1930s Venini chandelier has two rings of curved-glass elements suspended from a brass frame. It appears to glow magically from within because the glass elements are infused with gold leaf. Tiny glass chips are fused on the inner surface of each to diffuse light, and to make them translucent rather than transparent. Made by pouring molten glass into squared-off molds, they were cut into wedge shapes after hardening when cool. They were used as modules in an artisanal take on the interchangeable parts introduced during the Industrial Revolution more than a century before. But it took the modernist architect and designer Carlo Scarpa to introduce this concept to glassmakers on Murano, that bastion of the artisanal, where centuries-old techniques were still being employed to beautiful effect. Born in 1905, Scarpa was a native Venetian who studied architecture before becoming a designer in 1926 at the glassworks M. V. M. Cappellin. There he began exploring the possibilities of artisanally-made interchangeable parts for lighting fixtures. When that firm closed in 1932, the savvy Paolo Venini lured Scarpa to his own firm. And there, with greater resources, Scarpa designed glass modules that could be configured according to his lighting designs, and reconfigured by others at Venini to create variants suited to the rooms where they were destined to hang. Scarpa's system allowed the modules to be lined up as cove lighting and pendants, or fanned into concentric rings. The round chandeliers are rare because they were more difficult to make, since the elements had to be chamfered at varying angles to achieve the desired diameter -- a tricky proposition that relied on the craftsman's eye and hand. The form of our chandelier may have been designed by Scarpa himself, or another Venini designer working with his modules. In either case, as it doesn't correspond to a known standard model, it may well be unique.

Creator:

Venini (Maker)

Dimensions:

Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Diameter: 26 in (66.04 cm)

Power Source:

Hardwired

Lampshade:

Not Included

Style:

Modern (Of the Period)

Materials and Techniques:

Brass,Glass

Place of Origin:

Italy

Period:

1930-1939

Date of Manufacture:

Circa 1938

Condition:

Wear consistent with age and use. Two elements were broken and glued, which is discernible when held in the hand but invisible when installed. Most elements are numbered, but some that aren't may be replacements supplied by Venini. Installation instructions will be supplied.

Seller Location:

New York, NY

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU1061437247662

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Venini

Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano. While the company’s founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Giò Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearnsof the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.

Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm, he took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction it produced mainly classical Baroque designs. In 1932, he hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).

Paolo Venini’s best designs are thought to be his two-color Clessidre hourglasses, produced from 1957 onward, and the Fazzoletto (“handkerchief”) vase, designed with Bianconi in 1949. Bianconi’s masterworks are considered by many to be his Pezzato works — colorful vases with patterns that resemble those of a patchwork quilt. Other noteworthy and highly collectible vintage Venini works include Ponti’s dual-tone stoppered bottles (circa 1948); rare glass sculptures from the Doge series by Stearns, the first American to design for the firm; Vignelli’s striped lanterns of the 1960s; the Occhi vases with eyelet-shaped patterns by Tobia Scarpa (son of Carlo); and, with their almost zen purity, the Bolle (“bubbles”) bottles designed by Wirkkala in 1968.

With these works — and many others by some of the creative titans of the 20th and 21st century — Venini has produced one of the truly great bodies of work in modern design.