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Venini Glass

Italian

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.

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Creator: Venini
Venini Two-Tone Tall Vase 'Signed'
By Venini
Located in East Hampton, NY
Reverse cone shape with vivid turquoise blue glass ring on black glass base. SIGNED and dated to bottom.
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

"Kelo" Art Glass Vase
By Timo Sarpaneva, Venini
Located in New York, NY
"Kelo" Italian art glass vase by Timo Sarpaneva for Venini & Co. Glass, clear, black, white and red. Marked: Venini 90 Sarpaneva (engraved).
Category

1990s Italian Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass

Vintage Italian "Membrane" Valet Tray in Clear Murano Glass by Toni Zuccheri
By Venini, Toni Zuccheri
Located in Milan, IT
Vintage Murano glass valet tray / vide poche / sculpture, created by celebrated Italian designer Toni Zuccheri for glassmaker Venini as part of the "Membrane" collection, which inclu...
Category

1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Art Glass, Murano Glass

Carlo Scarpa Green Poliedri Chandelier in Murano Opaline Glass for Venini, 1958
By Carlo Scarpa, Venini
Located in Vicenza, IT
“Poliedri” chandelier designed by Carlo Scarpa and produced by the Italian manufacturer Venini in, 1958. Made of opaline Murano glass. Born in Venice on June 2nd, 1906, Carlo Scarpa began working at a very early age. Only a year after he had first qualified as an architect in 1926, he began working for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin & Co. in a consultative capacity; from 1927, he began to experiment with the Murano glass, and this research not only gave him excellent results here but would also inform his progress for many years to come. Between 1935 and 1937, as he entered his thirties, Carlo Scarpa accepted his first important commission, the renovation of Venice’s Cà Foscari. He adapted the spaces of this stately University building which stands on the banks of the Grand Canal, creating rooms for the Dean’s offices and a new hall for academic ceremonies; Mario Sironi and Mario De Luigi were charged with doing the restoration work on the frescos. After 1945, Carlo Scarpa found himself constantly busy with new commissions, including various furnishings and designs for the renovation of Venice’s Hotel Bauer and designing a tall building in Padua and a residential area in Feltre, which are all worth mention. One of his key works, despite its relatively modest diminished proportions, was the first of many works which were to follow in the nineteen fifties: the [bookshop known as the] Padiglione del Libro, which stands in Venice’s Giardini di Castello and shows clearly Scarpa’s passion for the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the years which were to follow, after he had met the American architect, Scarpa repeated similar experiments on other occasions, as can be seen, in particular, in the sketches he drew up in 1953 for villa Zoppas in Conegliano, which show some of his most promising work. However, this work unfortunately never came to fruition. Carlo Scarpa later created three museum layouts to prove pivotal in terms of how twentieth-century museums were to be set up from then on. Between 1955 and 1957, he completed extension work on Treviso’s Gipsoteca Canoviana [the museum that houses Canova’s sculptures] in Possagno, taking a similar experimental approach to the one he used for the Venezuelan Pavilion at [Venice’s] Giardini di Castello which he was building at the same time (1954-56). In Possagno Carlo Scarpa was to create one of his greatest ever works, which inevitably bears comparison with two other museum layouts that he was working on over the same period, those of the Galleria Nazionale di Sicilia, housed in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo (1953-55) and at the Castelvecchio in Verona (1957- 1974), all of which were highly acclaimed, adding to his growing fame. Two other buildings, which are beautifully arranged in spatial terms, can be added to this long list of key works that were started and, in some cases, even completed during the nineteen fifties. After winning the Olivetti award for architecture in 1956, Scarpa began work in Venice’s Piazza San Marco on an area destined to house products made by the Industrial manufacturers Ivrea. Over the same period (1959-1963), he also worked on renovation and restoration of the gardens and ground floor of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, which many consider being one of his greatest works. While he busied himself working on-site at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Carlo Scarpa also began work building a villa in Udine for the Veritti family. To shed some light on the extent to which his work evolved over the years, it may perhaps be useful to compare this work with that of his very last building, villa Ottolenghi Bardolino, which was near to completion at the time of his sudden death in 1978. Upon completion of villa Veritti over the next ten years, without ever letting up on his work on renovation and layouts, Scarpa accepted some highly challenging commissions which were to make the most of his formal skills, working on the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa as well as another theatre in Vicenza. Towards the end of this decade, in 1969, Rina Brion commissioned Carlo Scarpa to build the Brion Mausoleum in San Vito d’Altivole (Treviso), a piece he continued to work on right up until the moment of his death. Nevertheless, even though he was totally absorbed by work on this mausoleum, there are plenty of other episodes which can offer some insight into the final years of his career. As work on the San Vito d’Altivole Mausoleum began to lessen from 1973, Carlo Scarpa began work building the new headquarters for the Banca Popolare di Verona. He drew up plans that were surprisingly different from the work he was carrying out at the same time on the villa Ottolenghi. However, the plans Carlo Scarpa drew up, at different times, for a monument in Brescia’s Piazza della Loggia commemorating victims of the terrorist attack on May 28th, 1974, make a sharp contrast to the work he carried out in Verona, almost as if there is a certain hesitation after so many mannered excesses. The same Pietas that informs his designs for the Piazza Della Loggia can also be seen in the presence of the water that flows through the Brion Mausoleum, almost as if to give a concrete manifestation of pity in this twentieth-century work of art. Carlo Scarpa has put together a highly sophisticated collection of structures, occupying the mausoleum’s L-shaped space stretching across both sides of the old San Vito d’Altivole cemetery. A myriad of different forms and an equally large number of different pieces, all of which are separate and yet inextricably linked to form a chain that seems to offer no promise of continuity, rising up out of these are those whose only justification for being there is to bear the warning “si vis vitam, para mortem”, [if you wish to experience life prepare for death] as if to tell a tale that suggests the circle of time, joining together the commemoration of the dead with a celebration of life. At the entrance of the Brion Mausoleum stand the “propylaea” followed by a cloister which ends by a small chapel, with an arcosolium bearing the family sarcophagi, the main pavilion, held in place on broken cast iron supports, stands over a mirror-shaped stretch of water and occupies one end of the family’s burial space. The musical sound of the walkways teamed with the luminosity of these harmoniously blended spaces shows how, in keeping with his strong sense of vision, Carlo Scarpa could make the most of all of his many skills to come up with this truly magnificent space. As well as a great commitment to architectural work, with the many projects which we have already seen punctuating his career, Carlo Scarpa also made many equally important forays into the world of applied arts. Between 1926 and 1931, he worked for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin, later taking what he had learned with him when he went to work for the glassmakers Venini from 1933 until the 1950s. The story of how he came to work on furniture design is different, however, and began with the furniture he designed to replace lost furnishings during his renovation of Cà Foscari. The later mass-produced furniture started differently, given that many pieces were originally one-off designs “made to measure”. Industrial manufacturing using these designs as prototypes came into being thanks to the continuity afforded him by Dino Gavina, who, as well as this, also invited Carlo Scarpa to become president of the company Gavina SpA, later to become SIMON, a company Gavina founded 8 years on, in partnership with Maria Simoncini (whose own name accounts for the choice of company name). Carlo Scarpa and Gavina forged a strong bond in 1968 as they began to put various models of his into production for Simon, such as the “Doge” table, which also formed the basis for the “Sarpi” and “Florian” tables. In the early seventies, other tables that followed included “Valmarana”, “Quatour” and “Orseolo”. While in 1974, they added couch and armchair “Cornaro” to the collection and the “Toledo” bed...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

Fazzoletto Zanfirico Vase by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini, Venice Murano, 1950s
By Fulvio Bianconi, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Fazzoletto Zanfirico Vase by Fulvio Bianconi for Venini, Venice Murano 1950s A rare Fazzoletto (handkerchief) vase in transparent glass with white and light green rod decorations ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Five Turqoise Opalino Bowls by Paolo Venini, Murano circa 1950
By Paolo Venini, Venini
Located in London, GB
Five small turquoise opaline hand blown bowls by Paolo Venini (1895-1959) circa 1950 for Venini, opaque glass, acid stamp to each 'Venini Murano Italia'. Dimensons; each height 1 1/...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Blown Glass, Murano Glass, Opaline Glass

Vintage Venini Murano Light Blue White & Clear Wine Cooler Ice Bucket Italy 1970
By Venini
Located in Miami, FL
Vintage Venini Murano martini ice cube container in light blue, white & transparent wine cooler, ice bucket made in Italy 1970. No Makers Logo, Venini ...
Category

1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Art Glass Vase 'Bolle ' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, Murano
By Venini, Tapio Wirkkala
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Venini Art glass vase 'Bolle ' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, Murano A vintage art glass vase of the 'Bolle' series. Thin mouthblown grey and amethyst glass fused in incalmo technique. Designed by Tapio Wirkkala in 1966 and manufactured by Venini Murano Venice in 1997. Venini model number 502.02. Signed with incised signature 'venini 97 tw' on the base. In 1921 Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin founded a company that would become world famous. Under the artistic directions of Vittorio Zecchin the Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. become the whiz kid of the golden 1920s. Over the decades, countless world-renowned artists like Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Tomaso Buzzi, Fulvio Bianconi, Tuni Zuccheri, Thomas Stearns...
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Vintage Murano Art Glass Vase 'Bolle ' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini
By Venini, Tapio Wirkkala
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vintage Murano Art glass vase 'Bolle' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini A vintage art glass vase of the 'Bolle' series. Thin mouth blown st...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini, Small Mid Century Murano Handkerchief Glass Vase, Italy, circa 1960's
By Venini
Located in Chatham, ON
Mid Century handkerchief glass vase - twisted yellow canes with copper aventurine and white latticino - rare small size - smooth polished base ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass

Vetro Soffiato 'Caravaggio' Glass Vase by Vittorio Zecchin for Venini Murano
By Vittorio Zecchin, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vetro Soffiato 'Caravaggio' Glass Vase by Vittorio Zecchin for Venini Murano. A vetro soffiato glass vase in transparent amethyst glass with slightly...
Category

Early 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Ruby Bullicante Bowl by Carlo Scarpa
By Venini
Located in Riverdale, NY
Venini Bullicante bowl in vibrant ruby orange with gold foil inclusions by Carlo Scarpa circa 1950. Measures: 4" x 4" x 2" high. 1950s Italy.   
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Blown Glass

Venini Art Glass Vase 'Bolle ' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, Murano 1966
By Tapio Wirkkala, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Venini Art glass vase 'Bolle ' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, Murano 1966 A vintage art glass vase of the 'Bolle' series. Thin mouthblown straw and applegreen glass fused in incalmo technique. Designed by Tapio Wirkkala in 1966 and manufactured by Venini Murano Venice in 1981. Venini model number 503.02. Signed with incised signature 'venini italia tw 81' on the base. In 1921 Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin founded a company that would become world famous. Under the artistic directions of Vittorio Zecchin the Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. become the whiz kid of the golden 1920s. Over the decades, countless world-renowned artists like Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Tomaso Buzzi, Fulvio Bianconi, Tuni Zuccheri, Thomas Stearns...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Art Glass Vase 'Bolle' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, Murano, 1966
By Tapio Wirkkala, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Venini art glass vase 'Bolle' by Tapio Wirkkala for Venini, Murano 1966 A vintage art glass vase of the 'Bolle' series. Thin mouthblown grey and aquamarine glass fused in incalmo technique. Designed by Tapio Wirkkala in 1966 and manufactured by Venini Murano Venice in the 1970s. Venini model number 503.01. Signed with incised signature 'venini italia tw' on the base. In 1921 Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin founded a company that would become world famous. Under the artistic directions of Vittorio Zecchin the Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. become the whiz kid of the golden 1920s. Over the decades, countless world-renowned artists like Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Tomaso Buzzi, Fulvio Bianconi, Tuni Zuccheri, Thomas Stearns...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Large Vetro Sommerso Vase by Carlo Scarpa for Venini Murano, circa 1930s
By Venini, Carlo Scarpa
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Large Vetro Sommerso Vase by Carlo Scarpa for Venini Murano, circa 1930s. A large vetro sommerso bollicine vase designed by Carlo Scarpa between 1934 and 1936. Manufactured by Ven...
Category

Early 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Vetro Soffiato Glass Vase by Venini Murano, Ca. 1950s
By Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vetro Soffiato Glass Vase by Venini Murano ca. 1950s A 'Vetro Soffiato' amphora glass vase in light-amethyst transparent glass. Manufactured by Venini Murano Venice ca. 1950s. Venini model number 3808. Unsigned. In 1921 Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin founded a company that would become world famous. Under the artistic directions of Vittorio Zecchin the Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. become the whiz kid of the golden 1920s. Over the decades, countless world-renowned artists like Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Tomaso Buzzi, Fulvio Bianconi, Tuni Zuccheri, Thomas Stearns...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Sommersi Oro Vase, Italy, 1993
By Laura Diaz de Santillana, Venini
Located in New York, NY
Laura Diaz de Santillana (b. 1955) for Venini rare Sommersi Oro vase from "Laura" series, Italy, 1993. This elegant hand-blown Murano glass vase is an exquisite blue color with gold ...
Category

1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass

1930s Venini Twisted Murano Glass Italian Design Picture Frame
By Venini
Located in Brescia, IT
Picture Frame Art Deco Venini, 1930s Italy Twisted glass Brass details Perfect condiction.
Category

1930s Italian Art Deco Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Venini Art Glass Bowl 'Diamante' by Paolo Venini, Murano 1930s
By Paolo Venini, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Venini Art Glass Bowl 'Diamante' by Paolo Venini, Murano 1930s A rare Venini art glass bowl of the 'Diamante' series. Heavy transparent glass with ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Vetro Soffiato Glass Jug Tiziano, Venini Murano ca. 1930s
By Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vetro Soffiato glass jug Tiziano, Venini Murano ca. 1930s A large 'Vetro Soffiato' art glass jug in smoke-hued transparent glass. Manufactured by Venini Murano Venice ca. 1930s - 50s. Venini catalogo rosso model number 3811. Acid etched signature 'venini murano ITALIA' on the base. In 1921 Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin founded a company that would become world famous. Under the artistic directions of Vittorio Zecchin the Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. become the whiz kid of the golden 1920s. Over the decades, countless world-renowned artists like Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Tomaso Buzzi, Fulvio Bianconi, Tuni Zuccheri, Thomas Stearns...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Vetro Soffiato Glass Vase by Vittorio Zecchin for Venini Murano ca. 1920s
By Venini, Vittorio Zecchin
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vetro Soffiato Glass vase by Vittorio Zecchin for Venini Murano ca. 1920s A large 'Vetro Soffiato' art glass vase in straw coloured transparent glass decorated with air bubbles. D...
Category

Early 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Zanfirico pencil neck Murano Glass vase , signed " Venini Italia"
By Venini
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful Venini vase in this canes twisted work, zanfirico technic that makes lattice patterns . This vase has a neck shape and is signed in bottom diamond point "Venini Italia" .
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Vetro Soffiato Glass Vase by Vittorio Zecchin for Venini Murano, ca. 1950
By Venini, Vittorio Zecchin
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vetro Soffiato glass vase by Vittorio Zecchin for Venini Murano ca. 1950 A 'Vetro Soffiato' glass vase in straw yellow transparent glass with slightl...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Vintage Acco Vase by Alessandro Mendini for Venini, Murano 1997
By Alessandro Mendini, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vintage Acco vase by Alessandro Mendini for Venini, Murano 1997 A vintage art glass vase of the Acco series designed in 1988 by Alessandro Mendini for Venini, Venice. White opaque glass with a colorful overlay in red and a clear glass finish. With incised signature 'venini 97 A. Mendini' on the base and company lable on the body. A great example of the 1980s Italian Memphis Design. In 1921 Paolo Venini and Giacomo Cappellin founded a company that would become world famous. Under the artistic directions of Vittorio Zecchin the Vetri Soffiati Cappellin Venini & C. become the whiz kid of the golden 1920s. Over the decades, countless world-renowned artists like Napoleone Martinuzzi, Carlo Scarpa, Tomaso Buzzi, Fulvio Bianconi, Tuni Zuccheri, Thomas Stearns...
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Large Venini Art Glass Vase with Inciso Decoration Paolo Venini, Murano 1956
By Paolo Venini, Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Large Venini Art Glass vase with Inciso Decoration Paolo Venini, Murano 1956 A large vintage art glass vase in notte (night) blue pesante glass with layered colours and clear glas...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Paolo Venini Pair of Opalino Vases for Venini in Light Grey, Italy 1950s
By Paolo Venini, Venini
Located in Milan, IT
Monumental Paolo Venini vase model 3556 for Venini in light grey Opalino glass. The second smaller vase measures Diameter 13 x H 38 cm. Both vases carry the Venini label and are Acid etched Venini Murano Italia...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Carlo Scarpa Big “Poliedri” Chandelier in Murano Opaline Glass for Venini, 1958
By Carlo Scarpa, Venini
Located in Vicenza, IT
“Poliedri” chandelier designed by Carlo Scarpa and produced by the Italian manufacturer Venini in, 1958. Made of opaline Murano glass. Born in Venice on June 2nd, 1906, Carlo Scarpa began working at a very early age. Only a year after he had first qualified as an architect in 1926, he began working for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin & Co. in a consultative capacity; from 1927, he began to experiment with the Murano glass, and this research not only gave him excellent results here but would also inform his progress for many years to come. Between 1935 and 1937, as he entered his thirties, Carlo Scarpa accepted his first important commission, the renovation of Venice’s Cà Foscari. He adapted the spaces of this stately University building which stands on the banks of the Grand Canal, creating rooms for the Dean’s offices and a new hall for academic ceremonies; Mario Sironi and Mario De Luigi were charged with doing the restoration work on the frescos. After 1945, Carlo Scarpa found himself constantly busy with new commissions, including various furnishings and designs for the renovation of Venice’s Hotel Bauer and designing a tall building in Padua and a residential area in Feltre, which are all worth mention. One of his key works, despite its relatively modest diminished proportions, was the first of many works which were to follow in the nineteen fifties: the [bookshop known as the] Padiglione del Libro, which stands in Venice’s Giardini di Castello and shows clearly Scarpa’s passion for the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. In the years which were to follow, after he had met the American architect, Scarpa repeated similar experiments on other occasions, as can be seen, in particular, in the sketches he drew up in 1953 for villa Zoppas in Conegliano, which show some of his most promising work. However, this work unfortunately never came to fruition. Carlo Scarpa later created three museum layouts to prove pivotal in terms of how twentieth-century museums were to be set up from then on. Between 1955 and 1957, he completed extension work on Treviso’s Gipsoteca Canoviana [the museum that houses Canova’s sculptures] in Possagno, taking a similar experimental approach to the one he used for the Venezuelan Pavilion at [Venice’s] Giardini di Castello which he was building at the same time (1954-56). In Possagno Carlo Scarpa was to create one of his greatest ever works, which inevitably bears comparison with two other museum layouts that he was working on over the same period, those of the Galleria Nazionale di Sicilia, housed in the Palazzo Abatellis in Palermo (1953-55) and at the Castelvecchio in Verona (1957- 1974), all of which were highly acclaimed, adding to his growing fame. Two other buildings, which are beautifully arranged in spatial terms, can be added to this long list of key works that were started and, in some cases, even completed during the nineteen fifties. After winning the Olivetti award for architecture in 1956, Scarpa began work in Venice’s Piazza San Marco on an area destined to house products made by the Industrial manufacturers Ivrea. Over the same period (1959-1963), he also worked on renovation and restoration of the gardens and ground floor of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia in Venice, which many consider being one of his greatest works. While he busied himself working on-site at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Carlo Scarpa also began work building a villa in Udine for the Veritti family. To shed some light on the extent to which his work evolved over the years, it may perhaps be useful to compare this work with that of his very last building, villa Ottolenghi Bardolino, which was near to completion at the time of his sudden death in 1978. Upon completion of villa Veritti over the next ten years, without ever letting up on his work on renovation and layouts, Scarpa accepted some highly challenging commissions which were to make the most of his formal skills, working on the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa as well as another theatre in Vicenza. Towards the end of this decade, in 1969, Rina Brion commissioned Carlo Scarpa to build the Brion Mausoleum in San Vito d’Altivole (Treviso), a piece he continued to work on right up until the moment of his death. Nevertheless, even though he was totally absorbed by work on this mausoleum, there are plenty of other episodes which can offer some insight into the final years of his career. As work on the San Vito d’Altivole Mausoleum began to lessen from 1973, Carlo Scarpa began work building the new headquarters for the Banca Popolare di Verona. He drew up plans that were surprisingly different from the work he was carrying out at the same time on the villa Ottolenghi. However, the plans Carlo Scarpa drew up, at different times, for a monument in Brescia’s Piazza della Loggia commemorating victims of the terrorist attack on May 28th, 1974, make a sharp contrast to the work he carried out in Verona, almost as if there is a certain hesitation after so many mannered excesses. The same Pietas that informs his designs for the Piazza Della Loggia can also be seen in the presence of the water that flows through the Brion Mausoleum, almost as if to give a concrete manifestation of pity in this twentieth-century work of art. Carlo Scarpa has put together a highly sophisticated collection of structures, occupying the mausoleum’s L-shaped space stretching across both sides of the old San Vito d’Altivole cemetery. A myriad of different forms and an equally large number of different pieces, all of which are separate and yet inextricably linked to form a chain that seems to offer no promise of continuity, rising up out of these are those whose only justification for being there is to bear the warning “si vis vitam, para mortem”, [if you wish to experience life prepare for death] as if to tell a tale that suggests the circle of time, joining together the commemoration of the dead with a celebration of life. At the entrance of the Brion Mausoleum stand the “propylaea” followed by a cloister which ends by a small chapel, with an arcosolium bearing the family sarcophagi, the main pavilion, held in place on broken cast iron supports, stands over a mirror-shaped stretch of water and occupies one end of the family’s burial space. The musical sound of the walkways teamed with the luminosity of these harmoniously blended spaces shows how, in keeping with his strong sense of vision, Carlo Scarpa could make the most of all of his many skills to come up with this truly magnificent space. As well as a great commitment to architectural work, with the many projects which we have already seen punctuating his career, Carlo Scarpa also made many equally important forays into the world of applied arts. Between 1926 and 1931, he worked for the Murano glassmakers Cappellin, later taking what he had learned with him when he went to work for the glassmakers Venini from 1933 until the 1950s. The story of how he came to work on furniture design is different, however, and began with the furniture he designed to replace lost furnishings during his renovation of Cà Foscari. The later mass-produced furniture started differently, given that many pieces were originally one-off designs “made to measure”. Industrial manufacturing using these designs as prototypes came into being thanks to the continuity afforded him by Dino Gavina, who, as well as this, also invited Carlo Scarpa to become president of the company Gavina SpA, later to become SIMON, a company Gavina founded 8 years on, in partnership with Maria Simoncini (whose own name accounts for the choice of company name). Carlo Scarpa and Gavina forged a strong bond in 1968 as they began to put various models of his into production for Simon, such as the “Doge” table, which also formed the basis for the “Sarpi” and “Florian” tables. In the early seventies, other tables that followed included “Valmarana”, “Quatour” and “Orseolo”. While in 1974, they added couch and armchair “Cornaro” to the collection and the “Toledo” bed...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

Venini vase Colletti series 70’s
By Alessandro Diaz de Santillana, Venini
Located in bari, IT
Colletti series vase in greenish blown glass with two-tone incalmo band decoration designer Alessandro Diaz de Santillana. Venini engraved signature. After graduating in architecture...
Category

1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Venini, Murano Glass Paperweight / Abstract Sculpture, Signed
By Venini
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Beautiful Venini paperweight / abstract sculpture with a traditional swirl ribbon design. This is signed and is shown with circle marker in last picture, very faded, but is (Venini I...
Category

1960s Italian Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass

Venini Bianconi Murano Italian Art Glass Fazzoletto Handkerchief Ribbons Vase
By Paolo Venini, Fulvio Bianconi, Venini
Located in Kissimmee, FL
Beautiful vintage Murano hand blown tight net ribbons Italian art glass fazzoletto / handkerchief sculptural vase. Documented to designer Fulvio Bianconi, for the Venini company, circa 1950s. The vase is acid signed "Venini Murano Italia" underneath. It has alternating bands of pink and green Zanfirico ribbons creating a very nice unique pattern, with very unusual color combination. Similar ones are published in the Bianconi book, and many other Venini reference books...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Art Glass, Blown Glass, Murano Glass

Paolo Venini Murano Signed Blue Inciso Technique Italian Art Glass Flower Vase
By Paolo Venini, Venini
Located in Kissimmee, FL
Beautiful vintage Murano hand blown Sommerso blue and peachy color Italian art glass flower vase. Designed by Paolo Venini, circa 1955 for Venini e. Co. The vase has an elegant taper...
Category

1950s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Art Glass, Blown Glass, Murano Glass, Sommerso

Monumental Ruby Red Italian Murano Art Glass Vase by Venini
By Venini
Located in Atlanta, GA
Spectacular and beautiful hand-blown Italian Art glass vase by Venini, Murano. Extra tall sculptural amphora shape with scalloped edges in ruby red color with swirling. There is no v...
Category

Late 20th Century Italian Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

Eight Murano Stackable Glass Vases for Venini
By Venini, Timo Sarpaneva
Located in Palm Springs, CA
Eight stackable glass vases attributed to Timo Sarpaneva for Venini. Each glass vase measures about 6.5" high and 5" diameter.  
Category

1970s Italian Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass

Venini Esagonale Caraffa in Straw Yellow and Coral by Carlo Scarpa
By Carlo Scarpa, Venini
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Esagonale Glass Glass collection, designed by Carlo Scarpa and manufactured by Venini, originally designed in 1932, consists of three glasses and a decanter. Esagonale Caraffa / deca...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Glass

Venini Murano Italy Glass Green Bottle Serie “Velati”, 1981
By Paolo Venini, Venini
Located in Reggio Emilia, IT
Amazing and fabulous Italian handmade and blown bottle in green color glass with stopper, from the “Velati” series designed and produced by Venini Murano in 1981. Original Venini Murano label...
Category

1980s Italian Post-Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass

Venini by Carlo Scarpa Red Iridescent Sommerso Glass Vase, Murano Italy 1930's
By Carlo Scarpa, Venini
Located in Sacile, PN
Carlo Scarpa started working for Venini in the 1932 and was the artistic director until 1946.In that period he was always searching an experimentating many different and sophisticate...
Category

1930s Italian Art Deco Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Venini, Mid-Century Latticino Handkerchief Vase, Unsigned, Italy, C.1950
By Venini
Located in Chatham, ON
VENINI - mid-century studio glass latticino 'handkerchief' vase - striking pink ribbons with copper aventurine edges - unsigned - Italy (Venice) - circa 1950. Excellent vintage co...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass

Venini, MCM Murano Fazzoletto Filigrana Glass Vase / Bowl, Italy, C.1960's
By Venini
Located in Chatham, ON
VENINI - mid century Murano Fazzoletto Filigrana glass vase - yellow, white and clear canes - rare large size - smooth polished ground pontil mark...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass

Mid-Century Modern Glass Bowl by Venini, Italy
By Venini
Located in London, GB
Beautiful vintage well sized Murano hand blown glass bowl. The bowl is fashioned using the famous Sommerso technique, creating clear bubbles in champagne or caramel colour with gold flecks. This is most likely the work of the famous Venini glass foundry. This technique has been published in various Venini books. Created in the "a Bollicine...
Category

1970s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Blown Glass

1930s Modernist Venini "Esagonale" Tumblers Set of 16
By Venini
Located in Litchfield, CT
Circa 1930s, Venini, Italy. These early modernist tumblers were designed by Carlo Scarpa in 1932. Delicately toned with cobalt blue rims they are decades ahead of their time. Excelle...
Category

1930s Italian Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass

Corroso a Bugne vase
By Venini, Carlo Scarpa
Located in Milano, MI
A beautiful Corroso a Bugne vase by Carlo Scarpa for Venini. With acid signature "Venini Murano" Literature: "Venetian Art Glass: An American Collection 1840 - 1970", Barovier, pag...
Category

1930s Italian Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Murano Glass

Small Venini Dish in Green Murano Art Glass, Carlo Scarpa Ca. 1930s
By Venini, Carlo Scarpa
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Small oval dish in green glass, Venini Murano ca. 1930s. A small oval murano art glass dish in transparent green glass, most probably designed...
Category

Early 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Frame Brass Murano Glass, 1940, Italy
By Venini
Located in Milano, IT
Venini frame.
Category

1840s Italian Other Antique Venini Glass

Materials

Brass

Vetro Soffiato Glass Vase "Holbein" by Venini Murano Ca. 1960s
By Venini
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Vetro Soffiato glass vase "Holbein" by Venini Murano ca. 1960s. A large vetro soffiato glass vase in transparent red glass with clear glass handles. ...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Tapio Wirkkala Polipo Venini Plate Murano Sculpture, 1990
By Tapio Wirkkala, Venini
Located in Paris, IDF
Rare beautiful Tapio Wirkkala “Polipo” plate for Venini, from the serie “Piatti di Tapio” signed and dated Venini TW 90 on the back, made of Murano glass using Incalmo technique. The...
Category

1990s Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Carlo Scarpa for Venini Murano Glass Ginger Jars
By Venini
Located in Pasadena, CA
Pair of soft yellow cased glass ginger jars designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini, circa 1980's. Jars measure 10.5" by 8.25" and are signed on the botto...
Category

1970s Post-Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Blown Glass

Small Dish in Green Glass, Venini Murano, Ca. 1930s
By Venini, Carlo Scarpa
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Small dish in green glass, Venini Murano ca. 1930s A small glass dish in transparent green glass, most probably designed by Carlo Scarpa. Manufactu...
Category

Early 20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Venini Venetian Large Tall Peach & Aventurine Art Glass Vase
By Venini
Located in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire
A stunning and large Venetian Murano art glass vase in peach colored translucent overlaid glass with gold aventurine inclusions made by...
Category

1990s Italian Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Blown Glass

Venini Vase, Murano Glass, Twisted Rods Technique, 80's, Italy
By Venini
Located in Padova, IT
The origins of the famous Italian glassmaker Venini date back to 1921, when Paolo Venini (1895-1959), Milanese lawyer and descendant of an ancient family of glass...
Category

1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Tall Laura de Santillana for Venini Blown Glass Klee Vase 1984
By Laura de Santillana, Venini
Located in Paris, IDF
Rare Laura de Santillana for Venini blown glass designed in the 1980s, large “Klee” model, signed Venini Italia Laura 84. This beautiful murano piec...
Category

1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass

Venini Vase 'Fazzoletto Opalino', by Fulvio Bianconi, 1950s
By Venini, Fulvio Bianconi
Located in Berghuelen, DE
Venini Vase 'Fazzoletto Opalino', by Fulvio Bianconi 1950s A Fazzoletto vase in opaline and rose glass with clear glass overlay. It was manufactured in the 1950s by Venini, Venice...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Art Glass, Murano Glass

Laura de Santillana for Venini Blown Glass Klee Vase, 1984
By Venini, Laura de Santillana
Located in Paris, IDF
Rare Laura de Santillana for Venini blown glass designed in the 1980s, “Klee” model, signed Venini Italia Laura 84. This beautiful murano piece feat...
Category

1980s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Glass

Vintage Murano Glass Decorative Item of Cherries by Martinuzzi for Venini, Italy
By Napoleone Martinuzzi, Venini
Located in Bresso, Lombardy
Made in Italy, 1930s. These cherries are made by Napoleone Martinuzzi for Venini in Murano glass. This item might show slight traces of use since it's vintage as a chip on the top...
Category

1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Murano Glass

Venini Bianconi Murano White Purple Zanfirico Italian Art Glass Fazzoletto Vase
By Paolo Venini, Fulvio Bianconi, Venini
Located in Kissimmee, FL
Beautiful vintage murano hand blown white and purple ribbons Italian art glass fazzoletto / handkerchief vase. Documented to designer Fulvio Bianconi, and signed "Venini Murano Itali...
Category

Mid-20th Century Italian Mid-Century Modern Venini Glass

Materials

Glass, Art Glass, Blown Glass, Murano Glass

Vintage Green Cased Alga Glass Vase with Gold Leaf by Tomaso Buzzi for Venini
By Tomaso Buzzi, Venini
Located in Bresso, Lombardy
Made in Italy, Murano, 1930s. Between 1932 and 1933 the Milanese architect Tomaso Buzzi, a spirited protagonist of the Milan “neoclassicist” movement, a friend and associate of Gio Ponti, and a partner of Il Labirinto, established a fruitful collaboration with the Venini glassware company, which would continue, albeit episodically, in later years. The architect’s creative contribution was evident both in the glass forms and in their innovative manufacturing technique. When Buzzi arrived at the Venini company in Murano, in 1932, he brought with him a remarkable cultural baggage and a thorough knowledge of ancient art, particularly the Etruscan period...
Category

1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Gold Leaf

Vintage Green Cased Alga Glass Vase with Gold Leaf by Tomaso Buzzi for Venini
By Tomaso Buzzi, Venini
Located in Bresso, Lombardy
Made in Italy, Murano, 1930s. Between 1932 and 1933 the Milanese architect Tomaso Buzzi, a spirited protagonist of the Milan “neoclassicist” movement, a friend and associate of Gio Ponti, and a partner of Il Labirinto, established a fruitful collaboration with the Venini glassware company, which would continue, albeit episodically, in later years. The architect’s creative contribution was evident both in the glass forms and in their innovative manufacturing technique. When Buzzi arrived at the Venini company in Murano, in 1932, he brought with him a remarkable cultural baggage and a thorough knowledge of ancient art, particularly the Etruscan period...
Category

1930s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Gold Leaf

Venini Murano Glass Book Ends with Red and White Murrine, Italy 1969
By Ludovico Diaz de Santillana, Venini
Located in Milan, IT
Venini Murano Glass Book Ends with Red and White Murrine, Italy 1969 Reference: Catalogo Ragionato Venini
Category

1960s Italian Mid-Century Modern Vintage Venini Glass

Materials

Nickel

Murano Blown Glass Chandelier Design by Gio Ponti for Venini Official
By Gio Ponti, Venini
Located in murano, IT
The models in the 99.81 collection were designed by Gio Ponti, who in 1946 applied to the contemporary style the refined colours introduced in the Venini palette by the great desig...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Italian Venini Glass

Materials

Blown Glass, Murano Glass

Venini glass for sale on 1stDibs.

Venini glass are available for sale on 1stDibs. These distinctive items are frequently made of glass and are designed with extraordinary care. There are many options to choose from in our collection of Venini glass, although brown editions of this piece are particularly popular. We have 188 vintage editions of these items in-stock, while there is 37 modern edition to choose from as well. Many of the original glass by Venini were created in the mid-century modern style in italy during the 20th century. If you’re looking for additional options, many customers also consider glass by Archimede Seguso, Barovier&Toso, and Fulvio Bianconi. Prices for Venini glass can differ depending upon size, time period and other attributes — on 1stDibs, these items begin at £147 and can go as high as £247,840, while a piece like these, on average, fetch £2,031.

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