Lot 44

PRIMAVERA Ercole Barovier hailed from one of Murano's oldest and most successful glassmaking families. Though a student of medicine, he and his brother Nicolo joined the family business in 1920, which at the time traded under the name Vetreria Artistica Barovier & C. With his technical expertise and design instincts, Ercole soon became manager and lead designer for the firm. It was under his ownership in 1936 that the glassworks merged with another giant in the field, S.A.I.A.R. Ferro-Toso, and by 1942 the new company was called Barovier & Toso. Dynamic as a proprietor, Ercole's true genius lay in his bravura as a designer. His earliest major successes can be traced back to the 1920s, first with murrine vessels and shortly thereafter with the introduction of his Primavera series of 1929-1930. The collection, presented at the 1930 XVII Biennale in Venice, featured compotes, vases, and vessels but the centerpiece and namesake of the collection was a very curious figure of a bird in blown glass, titled "Primavera: Glass Pigeon." With its puffed chest and regal stance the design was deemed worthy of a full page illustration in the catalogue. Primavera glass was quite literally the accidental result of one of Ercole's experiments, mixing various chemicals, and with its discovery came a new and revolutionary quality of glass, reminiscent of a cobweb in colorless glass internally decorated with a white crackled netting and bold black applications. The collection enjoyed immediate international success, but only a very limited number of pieces were produced. The secret of manufacture was lost, and to this day the technique has been impossible to replicate. Only three other examples of the iconic primavera bird are known to exist, one of which is in the collection of the Barovier and Toso Museum in Murano, Italy.

A RARE 'PRIMAVERA' INTERNALLY DECORATED AND APPLIED GLASS BIRD

ERCOLE BAROVIER FOR VETRERIA ARTISTICA BAROVIER & C., 1930

Details

A RARE 'PRIMAVERA' INTERNALLY DECORATED AND APPLIED GLASS BIRD
Ercole Barovier for Vetreria Artistica Barovier & C., 1930
121/8in. (30.8cm.) high

Lot Essay

cf. Barovier, et al, Il Vetro Di Murano alle Biennali 1895-1972, p.121; Il Bestiario de Murano, 1996, p. 39, fig. 25; Rarovier-Mentasti, Il Vetro Veneziano, p. 267, Attilia Dorigato, Rosa Barovier-Mentasti, et al., Mille Anne di Arte del Vetro, 1982, p. 256, fig. 508; Casabella, May 1930, p. 50 for illustrations of this model

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