Venetian glass
Venetian glass (Italian: vetro veneziano) is glassware made in Venice, typically on the island of Murano near the city.
Traditionally it is made with a soda–lime "metal" and is typically elaborately decorated, with various "hot" glass-forming techniques, as well as gilding, enamel, or engraving.
During the Early Middle Ages, Venice was originally controlled by the Eastern Roman Empire before eventually becoming an independent city state.
[1] It is thought that glass production in Venice began as early as around 450, as glassmakers from Aquileia fled to the islands to escape barbarian invaders.
[Note 1] The earliest archaeological evidence of a glass factory in the area comes from the Venetian lagoon island of Torcello and dates from the seventh or eighth century.
Despite their travel restrictions, the glassmakers lived on a beautiful island, were under the direct rule of Venice's Council of Ten (the Venetian state-security committee), and had extra privileges.
In 1739, the Council of Ten allowed him to move his furnace from Murano to Venice because his work had caused such jealousy that he and his workers feared for their lives.
[39] Lattimo, or milk glass, began being made in Murano during the 15th century, and Angelo Barovier is credited with its re-discovery and development.
[45] Murrine technique begins with the layering of colored liquid glass, heated to 1,040 °C (1,900 °F), which is then stretched into long rods called canes.
Major trading partners included the Spanish Indies, Italy, Spain, Ottoman Turkey, and the German-speaking states.
[50] Numerous leaders and dignitaries visited Murano during this century, including the queen of France, dukes, princes, generals, cardinals, archbishops, and ambassadors.
[51] Collectors of Murano glass included Henry VIII of England, Pope Clement VII, King Ferdinand of Hungary, Francis I of France, and Philip II of Spain.
Shapes became elongated and elegant, "then more elaborate and inclining to fantasy", for example in the hot-work pieces added to the sides of the stems of glasses.
[66] A flux, usually soda (sodium oxide as 10 to 20 percent of the glass composition) was added to enable the silica to melt at a lower temperature.
A ferro sbuso, also called a canna da soffio, is the blowpipe essential for extracting molten glass and beginning the shaping process.
[76] Some of Venice's historical glass factories in Murano remain well known brands today, including De Biasi, Gabbiani, Venini, Salviati, Barovier & Toso, Pauly, Berengo Studio, Seguso, Formia International, Simone Cenedese, Alessandro Mandruzzato, Vetreria Ducale, Estevan Rossetto 1950 and others.
To fight the imitation problem, a group of companies and concerned individuals created a trademark in 1994 that certifies that the product was made on Murano.
Unlike 500 years ago, children of glassmakers do not enjoy any special privileges, extra wealth, or marriage into nobility.
Foreign imitations, and difficulty attracting young workers, caused the number of professional glassmakers in Murano to decrease from about 6,000 in 1990 to fewer than 1,000 by 2012.
[78] Murano glass, famed for its intricate designs and centuries-old craftsmanship, has become a prime target for counterfeiters, flooding the market with low-quality imitations that deceive unsuspecting buyers[79].
The challenge lies in the fact that recognizing genuine Murano glass requires expert knowledge of traditional techniques, materials, and hallmark signatures.
To address this growing issue, since 2024 a genuine Murano glass firm has been introducing for the first time[80] in the market blockchain-based solution: Non-Fungible Token (NFT) certificates.
Each authentic Murano glass artwork is linked to a unique NFT, which acts as an immutable digital certificate recorded on a secure blockchain.
[81] This system appears to be the most advanced solution to ensure that every piece’s origin, artisan details, and authenticity are permanently verifiable, providing buyers with a foolproof method to confirm the legitimacy of their purchase.
By leveraging blockchain technology, this new certification method preserves the value of Murano glass and safeguards its rich artistic heritage for future generations.
In February 2021, Venetian glass trade beads were announced to have been found at three prehistoric Eskimo sites in Alaska, including Punyik Point.
Uninhabited today, and located a mile from the Continental Divide in the Brooks Range, the area was on ancient trade routes from the Bering Sea to the Arctic Ocean.
The researchers believed the likely route these artifacts traveled from their creation in Venice was across Europe, then Eurasia and finally over the Bering Strait, making this discovery "the first documented instance of the presence of indubitable European materials in prehistoric sites in the western hemisphere as the result of overland transport across the Eurasian continent."
From radiocarbon dating materials found near the beads, archaeologists estimated their arrival on the continent to sometime between 1440 and 1480, predating Christopher Columbus.
[82] The dating and provenance has however been challenged by other researchers who point out that such beads were first made in Venice in the mid-16th century, and that an early 17th-century French origin is also possible.
