A RARE 'A MACCHIE' BOWL, CIRCA 1942

Just before Venini closed due to the war, Carlo Scarpa designed a series of extremely modern bowls and dishes. Very pure forms were decorated with minimalist colours and motifs: simple striped or dots in black and few other colors, very often with lightly iridescent surface. Scarpa is looking again at ancient Roman glass for inspiration, an example of which is a bowl decorated with drops from Cyprus (4th Century AD), in the collection of the British Museum. Only a few of these bowls were produced after the war and soon they disappeared from the Venini catalogues.

Other bowls of this model can be found in the Nancy Olnik and George Spanu Collection, New York and in the Steinberg Foundation Collection, Vaduz.