1950s Glass

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.   

Very nice centerpiece in Murano glass ,opalescent and aventurine glass by the well known Master Anzolo Fuga .

Gorgeous and rare pair of wall sconces handcrafted from Murano Glass Master Fulvio Bianconi for Venini during the 1950s. Both wall lights are made of pink and white swirled Murano ar...

VERY LARGE Dino Martens Aureliano Toso attributed Murano complicated cane patchwork bowl. Iconic Mid-Century Modern design by one of the best Italian designers of the 1950s.

Murano Sommerso blown glass vase. Thick and heavy, beautiful blue and teal / green colors. Tiny flea bites along the bottom edge and scratches to the underside.

Model 3696 Alfredo Barbini Murano Abstract Vulcano Volcano Sculpture done in hand blown Murano Glass by one of the worlds best glass blowers Signed by the artist as shown. Retains th...

These are the classic, iconic champagne flutes made by St. Louis in a perfect set of 12. Hand blown crystal with optic rib cutting, zipper cut stem and star cut base. The subtle ribb...

Tapio Wirkkala - A set of both sizes crystal art-object, model 3545 - Iittala Finland 1957 & 1958. Two turned mold-blown crystal art-objects with spiraled cut lines. These art-obj...

Libbey Cavalcade Galloping Horse Tom Collins cocktail glasses Mid-Century Modern glasses- set of twelve, The 1950s Twelve (12) Libbey Tom Collins...

Large double bird Barbarico vase designed by Ercole Barovier for Barovier and Toso. Textured black glass with irredescent finish. The vase is Signed with applied paper manufacturer's...

Superb Lalique Fontainebleau service composed of 41 pieces in sets of 8 and one carafe. This service has champagne coupes, water, red, white wine...

Mid-Century Modern Pair of Engraved Glass Panels, 1950s.

SIMON GATE for Orrefors. "Tusen fönster" / "Thousand windows" Art Deco vase in satin-cut clear art glass. 1950's. Measures: 23 x 12.5 cm. In ...

Empoli yellow glass decanter, Italy. Gorgeous and vibrant transparent lemon yellow blown glass decanter or bottle with matching stopper. Rare col...

Rare Neolitico, Murano glass sculpture /paperweight in this Fish shape by Barovier & Toso, label.

Rare Angelo Barovier mixed media on board with glass highlights. Signed and dated 1959. Large and impressive one of a kind sculptural work by a major world renowned glass artist. Boa...

Antique Spanish glass container with a metal cap. Made by unknown manufacturer in Spain, circa 1950. In original condition, with minor wea...

Scandinavian Modern Tapio Wirkkala Crystal line cut sculptures Handblown ca 1955 Two turned mold-blown crystal Art-object with vertical cut lines. Th...

Large crystal vase from the Belgian brand Val Saint Lambert. The vase is signed on the bottom. The vase has a thick wall and is of a heavy quality. This piece dates from circa 1950. ...

A thoroughly delightful superb quality vintage cut crystal glass vase dating from the mid-20th century. Condition: In excellent condition...

Antique victorian style Spanish glass and silver lidded sugar pot with a swing handle and a pull off lid. Made by unknown manufacturer, Spain, e...

Rare, 1950s set six of hand painted drinking glasses drawn by bandleader extraordinaire, Xavier Cugat. Glasses measure 5.75" in height by 2.75" diameter a...

Vintage opaline from Florence. This is a rare color and size, a must have for any collector. Looks simply stunning. The piece is in excellent condition and a real beauty! With best wishes, Geert ?Early Bird Gallery...

Beautiful and rare, vintage Murano hand blown opalescent and silver flecks Italian art glass flower vase. Documented to designer Ercole Barovier, for the Barovier and Toso company, c...

“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...

Vintage 'Space Age' of Murano Pastel opaline vase soliflore Florence 1955 This is a rare color and size, a must have for any collector. Looks simply stunning.

Beautiful freeform dish/Vide - Poche by Fontana Arte, with FX mark in bottom, shows light scratches near signature. Amazing green /blue color tone glass, very traditional for the ear...

White and beautiful little glass vase designed by Hermann Bongard. Hadeland Glassverk, Norway, 1956. Clean and soft line vase. Lovely as a single pi...

Large solid brass oval double sided swivel vanity table mirror.

A stunning round globe vase in glass designed by Edvin Ollers at Glimma Glass works in the 1950s. It is 18 cm in diameter and about 18 cm high. The vase is...

Beautiful tall vintage Murano hand blown Sommerso green to golden orange Italian art glass Heron bird sculpture. Documented to designer Archimede Seguso circa 1950s, with acid signed...

Outstanding beautiful vase from the "Ventana" series of Mona Morales Schildt for Kosta Glasbruk, 50s, Sweden. Sommerso with a special cut and polish technique.Signed "Kosta SS 212 M....

Made in Italy, 1950s. Made in Murano glass. It is a vintage piece, therefore it might show slight traces of use, but it can be considered as in excellent original condition and ready...

Set of two antique Spanish glass containers dedicated to preserve food. One of them presents a cork cap. Made by unknown manufacturer in Spain, circ...

Ercole Barovier “Bird”.

Beautiful pink Murano glass decorative statue made in the 1950s by a great Italian master glassmaker. The sculpture represents the figure of a very pretty turtle in a very beautiful light pink colour. The figure is stylised: in fact, we can distinguish the head, four legs, tail and shell, but the actual details cannot be distinguished, a very good sculpture. The shell is all pink...

A exquisite Murano vase in Sea Green. Possibly Barovier.

Heavy hand made art glass bowl in a beautiful pink, blue and clear colourway. The bowl has a lovely curved organic shape. It is in very good condition, with some scratching. Measurin...

Antique Spanish glass container with a plastic cap. Made by unknown manufacturer in Spain, circa 1950. In original condition, with minor w...

A glass pitcher with leather sleeve and brass handle by Carl Auböck II, Vienna, 1950s. The leather sleeve settles at the top third of the glass and is of a beautifully aged light ta...

Sea foam green 5815L Genie bottle decanter designed in 1958 by Wayne Husted for Blenko. Decanter measures 25" by 8.5" and is signed with the acid...

Antique French whisky glass bottle. By unknown manufacturer, France, circa 1950. In original condition, with minor wear consistent with age and use, pre...

Beautiful green color Apple, by the well known Swedish designer Ingeborg Lundin, This vase is marked, signed , Expo 32-57.

Duilio Barnabe (known as Dube) reverse painted glass top cocktail table with slightly concave sides and convex fishtail ends by Fontana Arte on black lacq...

Flysfors style Art Glass bowl with swirled color in cased crystal.

Delicate and ethereal, Tulpan (Tulip) vases by Swedish designer Nils Landberg. In the late 1940's Landberg developed the slender glass that made him famous. Sizes and shapes varied...

Very rare largest size Sapphire blue 'Dråbe' (Drop) vase from 1959. An iconic design by the Danish glass designer Per Lütken, mouth-blown at Holmegaard Denmark. The distinctive and c...

Cobalt Blue Glass Jars – Mouthblown Cobalt Blue Glass Jars – Mouth blown. These are contemporary vases made for us in Hungary. They are heavy thick glas...

Majestic Blenko "Genie Bottle" in Tangerine, circa 1960 and was designed by Wayne Husted. This iconic design was produced in small, medium, and large sizes. This is the largest size,...

Earl McCutcheon was a pioneer in the studio glass movement who spent 40 years at the University of Ga. In the 1950's he was among the most influential experimental glass makers in th...

Scandinavian Modern Saara Hopea two sizes Glass Bowls Blue Green Handblown 1950s Two mold-blown, clear, dark-blue and moss-green cased glass Art-objects / bowls, model SH117. Designed by Saara Hopea in 1956 and executed by Nuutajärvi-Notsjö in 1958 & 1959. An optical effect makes it appear as if the colour goes to the outer edges but the encasing is only in the interior. These objects were made between 1956 and 1967 in two sizes 9,5 cm and 13,5 cm in diameter, and in several colours (blue, green, yellow, purple and red) this being a complete set in green and blue. Both are early production examples. They are marked and dated in diamond pen underneath the base. About Saara Hopea Saara Elisabet Hopea (Porvoo 1925 - Porvoo 1984) was a Finnish designer of Art-glass, furniture and jewellery. Saara Hopea was born in 1925 in Porvoo, in the south of Finland. Her parents Ossian Hopea and Lempi Westerlund owned a goldsmithing company. After attending secondary school, Hopea studied at the Interior Design Department of the Central School of Art and Design, now the Aalto University of Art and Design. She graduated in 1946, and worked for a few years as an illustrator, then she accepted a job at the lighting factory of Taito Oy, headed by the renowned designer Paavo Tynell. In the early 1950's, Saara Hopea became interested in glass design and started working at the Nuutajärvi glass factory, where she worked under artistic director Kaj Franck. After her father's death, Saara Hopea took over the direction of the family business Ossian Hopea Oy in 1959. She worked as the artistic director from 1959 to 1960 and again from 1967 and was responsible for numerous jewellery designs. In 1960 Saara Hopea married Oppi Untracht...

3 Tulip Glasses Designed by Nils Landberg and mouth blown at Orrefors. First exhibited at the 1957 Milan Triennale . A difficult and elegant masterpiece . 2 @ 17"h, 1 @ 14.5"h Engra...

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...

French clear crystal art glass apple dish by Vannes Le Chatel. It is beautifully crafted from heavy crystal and the makers mark is fully acid etched o...

Large Cenedese Murano glass aquarium, Italy, 1950s.

Bohemian glass footed jar, circa 1950s. This is a real collector’s piece that should not miss in the collection. This piece is in excellent condition. Looks simply stunning. Di...

This rare and obscure signed Blenko vase or vessel is a luscious color of light purple. It was designed by Wayne Husted for Blenko and was most likely an...

A stunning mid-century Continental white cased purple art glass vase with a dropped wing top and dating from around 1960. Possibly Italian the hand-blown and heavily made vase has an...