PAOLO VENINI 1955-56 For Venini & Co. Sommerso Insiso Art Glass Tall Vase
A Battuto red vase designed by Carlo Scarpa (1906-1978) for Venini.
This is a rare art-glass vase designed by Paolo Venini for the Venini company, back in 1955. This vase was masterfully hand-bowed in sommerso at the Venini atelier located in the Murano island and finished with the difficult technique of insiso. This is the Venini oval shaped model 4807 in gray-green glass. It belongs to the insiso series, in fact the entire surface of the glass is characterized by dense and deep horizontal grindings (beatings). The splendid translucent color gives great liveliness to this extraordinary piece.
Insiso & Sommerso
Inciso is a cold-working glass technique, famously utilized by Venini in the 1950s, that involves engraving, cutting, or grinding horizontal lines onto the surface of a finished, often sommerso, glass vessel. This method creates a matte, textured, and tactile finish, contrasting with the smooth glass underneath. Sommerso (Italian for "submerged") is a renowned Murano glassmaking technique developed in the 1930s, involving the immersion of a colored glass core into one or more layers of molten, contrasting-colored glass. This creates a vibrant, multi-layered, and, often, submerged-color effect without mixing the hues, usually featuring a thick, clear, or colored outer layer.
Polo Venini
He was born in Cusano, Italy on January 12, 1895 to a middle-class Lombard family. As a young man he studied law in Milan. During the first war he was stationed near Venice where he became fascinated with the glass mosaics and stained glass of St. Mark’s cathedral. After the war he began a law practice but soon came under the influence of Venetian art and antiquities dealer Giacomo Cappellin who convinced the young Venini to join him as a business partner in a new Murano glass enterprise in 1921. Since then it has become almost impossible to discuss the life of Paolo Venini as separate from his company—all the available biographical material about him lacks personal detail and inevitably lists towards the celebrated history of the company. Venini’s biography is, therefore, the story of a man whose literal personality has been subsumed by his professional life and persona.
Country: Murano Venezia, Italy.
Period: Mid-century, 1955-1956.
Designer: Paolo Venini (1906-1978).
Model: Venini model-4807.
Edition: Unique piece.
Technique: Sommerso and Vertical insiso wheel-carved glass.
Weight: About 4 pounds, (1.84 Kg.).
Measurements: Height 311.15 mm; Width 95.25 mm; Length 131.6 mm. (12.25 x 3.75x 5.18 Inches).
Signature: Clearly signed at the bottom with the early three lines acid stamp, reading as follows, "VENINI MURANO ITALIA".
Venini
Beginning in the 1930s and throughout the postwar years, Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans who created extraordinary chandeliers, sconces and other lighting in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano. While the company’s co-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 Gio Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearns of the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.
Literature: Venini Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1986, Diaz de Santillana, pg. 283 for the technique. Venini Catalogue Raisonné 1921-1986, Diaz de Santillana, pg. 282 for this vase illustrated
Condition: The overall condition of this Venini-Paolo Venini vase is excellent. Beside the normal traces of wear at the base, there is absolutely no damage, cracks or repairs. This vase was carefully inspected to guarantee the condition & authenticity.
INVENTORY REF: D030326MTEN/.5541
