Ercole Barovier: the elegance of glass

As part of the session dedicated to Italian glassware on Thursday 12 March 2020, the PIASA design department is pleased to offer for sale a piece by Ercole Barovier. 

Founded in 1295, the Murano-based company "Barovier & Toso" is the fifth oldest surviving family business in the world. Directed in the 15th century by the master glassmaker Angelo Barovier, it developed a production of crystal and vitrified enamel pieces. Numerous works from their workshops can be found today in the rooms of the Murano Glass Museum. 

In 1878, the company was renamed Fratelli Barovier (Barovier Frères) under the impetus of Benvenuto and Giuseppe Barovier. In 1936, the Barovier family joined forces with the Toso family, also Venetian glassmakers. Ercole Barovier, born in 1889, is a draughtsman and chemist and heir to this creative family of several hundred years old. He designs more than 25,000 objects, whose sketches are kept in the company's archives. Between the end of the 1930s and the mid-1940s, the craftsman continued to direct his production towards increasingly thicker pieces of translucent glass. 

Between 1938 and 1942, his experiments also led to the creation of cups and bowls imitating the shape of the tridacne, a shell commonly known as a stoup. The series took the Italian name of A Grosse costolature ("big-ribbed"). Throughout the 1950s, Ercole Barovier continued his experiments with the technique of hot colouring without melting. His research occasionally led to new collections, including Basalto in 1950 and Barbarici the following year. 

The latter was presented for the first time in 1951, first at the International Glass Exhibition held at the Pavillon de Marsan in Paris, then at the Milan Triennial. It was an immediate success, and led to its appearance in several articles of the time. 

This zoomorphic piece offered for sale on Thursday 12 March 2020 was made in 1928. It was published in the prestigious magazine Domus the following year.  Head projected forward as if on the alert, the animal is rendered with great finesse.