Carlo Moretti for Tiffany & Co. Vase in Violet Blue and Aqua with Signature

Italian glassmaker Carlo Moretti elevated glassmaking to an avant-garde art form. He is known for his decorative vases, striking centerpieces and elegant table lamps. The bright, rich colors and sophisticated silhouettes of mid-century modernism that characterize his works brought high prestige to the Moretti name. 

Moretti was born in 1934 on Murano, a series of islands in the Venetian lagoon, a place famous for its glassmaking. Six years later, in 1940, his brother Giovanni Moretti was born. The older Moretti brother initially studied to become a lawyer, but he fell in love with the glassmaking tradition of his birthplace. 

In 1958, the two brothers opened the Carlo Moretti glassmaking company together in Murano. Carlo headed the company's creative side, but he was also a savvy entrepreneur. The Carlo Moretti company became known for its innovative techniques, creativity in design and refined style. 

Over the next 50 years, Moretti earned a name for himself as one of the Venetian glass masters. He was the recipient of the 1966 Internationalen Handwerksmesse Gold Medal, the 1966 Internationales Kunsthandwerk Award, the 1976 Macef Award and the 1984 Arango International Design Competition. His work is held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Musée Ariana and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum. 

When Moretti died in 2008, Giovanni took over the company. Giovanni sold the Carlo Moretti company in 2013 and passed away in 2014. The company continues to introduce new glassware collections in the characteristic style of its founder. It also operates a showroom called L’ISOLA in Venice.

On 1stDibs, find vintage Carlo Moretti decorative objects, serveware, lighting and more.

Tiffany & Co. is one of the most prominent purveyors of luxury goods in the United States, and has long been an important arbiter of style in the design of diamond engagement rings. A young Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed to his future wife, Eleanor, with a Tiffany ring in 1904. Vanderbilts, Whitneys, Astors and members of the Russian imperial family all wore Tiffany & Co. jewels. And Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis preferred Tiffany china for state dinners at the White House.

Although synonymous with luxury today, the firm started out rather modestly. Charles Lewis Tiffany and John B. Young founded it in Connecticut as a “stationery and fancy goods emporium” in 1837, at a time when European imports still dominated the nascent American luxury market. In 1853, Charles Tiffany — who in 1845 had launched the company’s famed catalog, the Blue Book, and with it, the firm’s signature robin’s-egg blue, which he chose for the cover — shifted the focus to fine jewelry. In 1868, Tiffany & Co. gained international recognition when it became the first U.S. firm to win an award for excellence in silverware at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. From then on, it belonged to the pantheon of American luxury brands.

At the start of the Gilded Age, in 1870, Tiffany & Co. opened its flagship store, described as a "palace of jewels" by the New York Times, at 15 Union Square West in Manhattan. Throughout this period, its designs for silver tableware, ceremonial silver, flatware and jewelry were highly sought-after indicators of status and taste. They also won the firm numerous accolades, including the grand prize for silverware at the Paris Exposition of 1878. Among the firm’s glittering creations from this time are masterworks of Art Nouveau jewelry, such as this delicate aquamarine necklace and this lavish plique-à-jour peridot and gold necklace, both circa 1900.

When Charles Lewis Tiffany died, in 1902, his son Louis Comfort Tiffany became the firm’s design director. Under his leadership, the Tiffany silver studio was a de facto design school for apprentice silversmiths, who worked alongside head artisan Edward C. Moore. The firm produced distinctive objects inspired by Japanese art and design, North American plants and flowers, and Native American patterns and crafts, adding aesthetic diversity to Tiffany & Co.’s distinguished repertoire.

Tiffany is also closely associated with diamonds, even lending its name to one particularly rare and exceptional yellow stone. The firm bought the Tiffany diamond in its raw state from the Kimberley mines of South Africa in 1878. Cut to create a 128.54-carat gem with an unprecedented 82 facets, it is one of the most spectacular examples of a yellow diamond in the world. In a broader sense, Tiffany & Co. helped put diamonds on the map in 1886 by introducing the American marketplace to the solitaire diamond design, which is still among the most popular engagement-ring styles. The trademark Tiffany® Setting raises the stone above the band on six prongs, allowing its facets to catch the light. A lovely recent example is this circa-2000 platinum engagement ring. Displaying a different design and aesthetic (but equally chic) is this exquisite diamond and ruby ring from the 1930s.