LA MURRINA: design glass !

THE CONSOLIDATED IMAGE

The island of Murano has always been, and still is, a major centre of the art of glass-making, alive with creative fervour. Unfortunately, the modern mass production techniques demanded by the market situation of today threaten to sap and erode the technical and creative patrimony from where the master craftsmen draw strength and inspiration for their works.

Luckily, this has not affected the La Murrina glass- Works, which still  produces craft glassware of superb quality. An enormous range of models, all hand-blown, comprising lights, vases, tableware and mirrors.

Products of suggestive elegance, loved and admired by a vast public . Their classic lines exalt the extraordinary manual skill of the glass-blowers of Murano, the expertly modulated colours revealing subtle nuances against the light.

HISTORY OF MURRINE ART

• In 61 b.C., Pompeo - a military commander and Roman politician, first ally and later opponent of Julius Caesar - brought to Rome some ‘murrha’ vases from Alexandria, made using glass canes with geometric or floral (called millefiori, ‘a thousand flowers’, in Murano) designs inside. The technique though, dates back to the Phoenicians.

• These vases had a very peculiar feature: they had a pleasant scent due to the fact that they were used to contain and store perfumes. And that’s the origin of the name murrha: myrra in latin means myrrh, perfume. In the 1st Century b.C. the Romans begun a production of glass vases that reproduced those brought by Pompeo.
• Unfortunately, the secret techniques used were lost during the Middle Ages. In the 16th Century the Muranese glass masters achieved a production of artworks that imitated the Roman murrine. The technique was then refined and brought back at the end of the 19th Century by Salviati Glassworks and Vincenzo Moretti. It reached its peak in the 20th Century, thanks to Artisti Barovier and Venini & Co glassworks.

CHOSE LA MURRINA OBJECTS FROM MY COLLECTION !!!