Set of six Seguso Murano Glass flute with gold leaf twisted steam detail

Members of the Seguso family have been leading figures in the manufacture of glass on the Venetian island of Murano since the late 1300s, but for most collectors of vintage design the name evokes two companies formed in the first half of the 20th century. Seguso Vetri d’Arte, born from a small consortium of master glass artisans that included Archimede Seguso (1909–99), thrived under the artistic directorship of Flavio Poli (1900–84), a designer with an eye for modern forms, color and pattern. Vetreria Archimede Seguso, meanwhile, was founded in 1946, when Seguso opened his own atelier in order to employ classical techniques in the making of modern glassware.

The owners of Seguso Vetri d’Arte were justly proud of their skills as craftsmen, but they were not worldly aesthetes — and they knew it. Poli had studied at the Art Institute of Venice, originally working in ceramics before switching mediums and taking up the art of glass. He introduced new simple forms to the genre — the best known of his designs being the Valva, which resembles a clamshell in profile — and employed several novel techniques such as corroso, which gives glass a rough, emery-board-like finish. Poli’s most collectible works are his sommerso pieces, made with a layering process in which clear and colored-glass vessels are “submerged” within one another, producing a kind of nesting-doll effect in striking, elegant vases with bands of separate and overlapped hues.

At his eponymous workshop, Archimede Seguso often favored highly decorative, age-old techniques employed with modern restraint. His layered-glass Losanghe vessels have the look of an abstract checkerboard while his free-form Merletto vases have delicate, lacy patterns created by painstakingly twisting two heated glass straws to create helixes around the walls of the piece.

Though different in their scope and mission, both of these furnaces bearing the Seguso name created some of the most beautiful, alluring and exquisitely crafted works in all of modern design.

The Seguso family has been dedicated to the art of Murano glass in Venice, Italy since 1397. 23 generations have passed down knowledge, art and passion at the highest level. MOMA, the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art are among the many museums, in addition to galleries and personal collectors, who have glass by Seguso Vetri d`Arte in their collections. Today, Seguso Vetri d`Arte is led by Gianluca and Pierpaolo Seguso, who continue to maintain and develop the historical manufacture in new dimensions, including the Seguso Experience - 2018 recipient of the Compasso d'Oro Menzione d’Onore from ADI (Honorable Mention of the Golden Compass from the Italian Association of Design ). This honor underlines the role of the Seguso family in the present time on the evolution of Murano Glass. The vision of designer and creative director Pierpaolo, fuses tradition and modernity, with the goal to offer a vast range of Murano glass designs and applications in lighting, furniture, and accessories, as well architectural accents, along with a great potential for many custom capabilities – always inspired by the rich creative heritage of Seguso.