Barovier e Toso: Art Deco Pendant, c.1930s

The Barovier family has been making glass on Murano since the fourteenth century. That is not a rounding. Angelo Barovier, in the fifteenth century, developed cristallo - the first truly colourless, transparent glass in Europe - and the family's name has been attached to the island's finest work in almost every generation since. By the time Barovier e Toso was formally constituted in 1936, the merger of two of Murano's oldest families, the lineage behind it ran six hundred years.

This pendant, attributed to that house and dating to the Art Deco period, shows the confidence that kind of duration produces. Three curved glass arms reach outward from a central fluted bowl, the whole thing suspended from a brass rod with a ceiling rose and fittings to match. The clear glass against the warm brass is characteristic of the 1930s: restrained, architectural, more interested in proportion than ornament.

One of the three arms carries a small historical chip near the fitting, visible on close inspection. The brass shows age-related patina throughout. Both are what ninety years looks like.

Fully restored. Rewired to Australian electrical standards.

H 95cm × Diameter 35cm.