CHARLES LIN TISSOT FOR VENINI, CIRCA 1959

Perhaps best known for his domestic glasswares produced by the reknown American retailer Steuben, and for his magical Glass Gardens collection executed for Tiffany & Co., Charles Lin Tissot, during his collaborative years with the Venini furnaces on the island of Murano, Italy, designed fanciful birdcages in the most ethereal of all materials -- glass. Admittedly appalled by the Muranese output of what he considered trivial trinkets and vessels in the 1950s, Tissot sought to rediscover the essential qualities of ancient glass and draw on traditional techniques in a totally modern way. Here he combines the milky yellow opaline glass of the plump birds with the clear glass ribs of the cage internally decorated with twisted white glass threads in the zanfirico technique.