Polpo Wine Glasses

Artist, designer and glass virtuoso Simone Crestani is a luminary in the world of glass art, combining time-honored tradition with innovative glassblowing techniques to create exquisite sculptures, vessels and modern objets d’art.

Born in 1984 in Marostica, near Venice, Crestani began working with glass at age 15 as an apprentice at the Massimo Lunardon glass factory. Following a 10-year apprenticeship, Crestani opened his atelier and studio in Camisano Vicentino in northern Italy in 2010.

Dedicated to research and exploring new glassblowing methods, Crestani has moved away from working with traditional Murano glass to borosilicate glass, using a specialized flameworking technique he calls “hollow sculpture.”

By using borosilicate glass, which is nearly unbreakable, Crestani can shape and mold his pieces with extraordinary detail. Nature inspires many of his works, such as his Serpentine barware, bird decanters, octopus-inspired Polpo pitchers, antler-topped Africa Trophy bottles, molecular Alchemica glassware line and beautiful candelabras adorned with roses. Other notable Crestani creations include his luminous E-Sumi wall sconces and table lamps, influenced by traditional Japanese sumi-e paintings.

Crestani has collaborated with leading designers such as Giordano Viganò, with whom he made several sculptural wood and glass tables, and Italian glass expert Roberto Giulio Rida for Bernd Goeckler Antiques’ Duetto collection. Among its pieces are the bonsai-like Avatar chandelier and the Scarabei mirror, with glass scarabs embedded in its circular frame.

Since 2006, Crestani’s works have been shown in solo and group exhibitions around the world, including PAD Paris, the Venice Biennale and Salon Art + Design in New York.

On 1stDibs, find a range of Simone Crestani serveware, decorative objects, lighting and more.

The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw sweeping social change and major scientific advances — both of which contributed to a new aesthetic: modernism. Rejecting the rigidity of Victorian artistic conventions, modernists sought a new means of expression. References to the natural world and ornate classical embellishments gave way to the sleek simplicity of the Machine Age. Architect Philip Johnson characterized the hallmarks of modernism as “machine-like simplicity, smoothness or surface [and] avoidance of ornament.”

Early practitioners of modernist design include the De Stijl (“The Style”) group, founded in the Netherlands in 1917, and the Bauhaus School, founded two years later in Germany.

Followers of both groups produced sleek, spare designs — many of which became icons of daily life in the 20th century. The modernists rejected both natural and historical references and relied primarily on industrial materials such as metal, glass, plywood, and, later, plastics. While Bauhaus principals Marcel Breuer and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created furniture from mass-produced, chrome-plated steel, American visionaries like Charles and Ray Eames worked in materials as novel as molded plywood and fiberglass. Today, Breuer’s Wassily chair, Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chair — crafted with his romantic partner, designer Lilly Reich — and the Eames lounge chair are emblems of progressive design and vintage originals are prized cornerstones of collections.

It’s difficult to overstate the influence that modernism continues to wield over designers and architects — and equally difficult to overstate how revolutionary it was when it first appeared a century ago. But because modernist furniture designs are so simple, they can blend in seamlessly with just about any type of décor. Don’t overlook them.

Whether it’s streamlined or sophisticated, a bar area is always a welcoming feature in any home interior. A cheery well-made drink with friends and family has the potential to yield some unforgettable moments alongside those that aren’t easily remembered. And the only way to conjure that exemplary cordial is by putting the proper antique or vintage barware to work.

Essential barware equipment ranges from sterling-silver barspoons for mixing your cocktails in tall collins glasses to jiggers, shakers and strainers that allow you to whip up martinis and old-fashioneds.

From a design standpoint, some barware, such as our array of Art Deco glass whiskey sets or mid-century modern silver-banded tumblers crafted by Dorothy Thorpe, can help position your bar as a bold and attractive centerpiece to a room. At the very least, a carefully curated collection of barware can elevate with subtlety the bar’s nearby fixtures, as a handcrafted crystal decanter might do for your vintage 1960s bar cart.

As cocktail hour draws near, find inspiration in our gorgeous gallery of home bars in locales ranging from London to New York to San Francisco, and browse the exquisite selection of antique, new and vintage barware and glassware on 1stDibs.