Flickr Widget

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Ercole Barovier

Ercole Barovier
Ercole Barovier (1889-1974) was an Italian glass designer who was part of a family that has been making glass for centuries. In 1920 he joined his father's company and became artistic director in 1926. By 1936 he was sole proprietor of the company, which is still operating today under the name of Barovier & Taso.

He developed new chemical formulas, created new colors and devised more efficient ways to manufacture glass. He invented “heat coloring without fusion” and obtained various patents, many of which have become fundamental, shared methods in the production of Murano glass. His ability to come up with new glass effects, however, was his greatest talent.

His vases using mosaic and intarsia (overlapping color inlay) effects, as well as a series known as Primavera, captured the attention of Gio Ponti, a leading Italian architect and designer. Ponti's praise for Barovier's work added to his reputation and helped establish him as one of the leading glass designers of the 1930s-1960s. Over the course of his career, which ended only shortly before his death, he created a portfolio of 25,000 designs.

His work was seen at many of the leading exhibitions of the day, including the first Monza Triennale, held in 1923, and the Venice Biennale. The last major show of his work was held at the Correr Museum in Venice in 1989. Today the works of Ercole Barovier can be seen in museums worldwide, as well as leading auction houses.

From barovier.com


Primavera vase
liveauctioneers.com

Gold infused glass figure of a tiger
christies.com

Autunnale vase
antiquehelper.com

Parabolico mosaic effect vase
1stdibs.com

Sidone mosaic effect bowl
1stdibs.com

Intarsia vase
exporevue.com

Intarsia vase
antiquehelper.com

Glass monkey
vandm.com

Efeso lamps
collectorsweekly.com

Glauco bowl
deconet.com

Encased design vase
founddesign.ca

Dorico vase
designaddict.com

2 comments:

  1. So lovely!

    If I could, I'd have a whole set of lit shelves and display art glass.

    But the cost tends to be fairly high, and I'm not sure I want to invest in so much glass living in an earthquake zone.

    But those are so beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. These pieces are way out of my price range, but they truly are beautiful. And who knows? Someone might run across one at an estate sale. After all, Bopfish did find that Picasso at a thrift store!

      I hear you about the earthquake zone! I never considered North Texas an earthquake zone, but there have been 7 quakes within 25 miles of Fort Worth over the summer. Some think it's the result of gas drilling. Maybe I'd better think of that before buying glass and ceramics!

      Delete