Murano Glass Egg Lamps, Pair of Large White Swirl Opaline Lamps

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Description

Murano Glass Egg Lamps, Pair of Large White Swirl Opaline Lamps
Italian, Murano, Circa 1975–1985

This pair of large egg-form … Read more Murano Glass Egg Lamps, Pair of Large White Swirl Opaline Lamps
Italian, Murano, Circa 1975–1985

This pair of large egg-form lamps was mold-blown on Murano in white opaline glass, each shell wound with a continuous spiral of denser opaque white ribs that gives the surface its characteristic swirl. The ribs were formed by blowing the gather into a finely grooved optic mold and twisting it while still hot, the technique known on the island as rigadin ritorto, or twisted ribbing, before the shell was blown out to its final ovoid form. The ribs survive as a faint relief on the glossy surface and, against the light, as alternating bands of thicker and thinner glass; toward the crown the spiral tightens into a small whorl where the ribs converge.

Each lamp stands directly on its open base, the circular aperture bound with a clear plastic ring, and is fitted inside with a single white socket on a brass bracket, fixed through the wall of the shell by a threaded nipple with a plastic bushing on the outside through which the cord passes. The flat cords, with in-line Gilbert rotary switches and two-pin plugs, show the lamps to have been wired for the American market. Unlit, the eggs read as smooth white sculptural forms. Lit, the whole shell glows and the spiral shows as alternating bright and shaded bands, throwing a pool of warm light onto the surface beneath. The two are closely matched, with the spiral running in the same direction on each, and their scale suits them equally to a low table or to the floor.

At 18 inches the eggs work as a pair on a console or low table, flanking a sofa on the floor, or split between two rooms as sculptural accent lighting. The soft white glow reads well against dark wood, saturated walls and mid-century and contemporary interiors alike, and they sit as comfortably with blue-and-white ceramics as with chrome and leather.

Dimensions
Height: 18 inches (45.7 cm)
Width: 13 inches (33 cm)

Marks
Unmarked; no factory or consortium label is present.

Provenance
Earle D. Vandekar of Knightsbridge

Condition
Good.

References
Consorzio Promovetro Murano, The Murano Glass Glossary (entries for rigadin and rigadin ritorto).
Venini, Murano Glassmaking Techniques (rigadin ritorto).
Wayne Stephens, Vetri Murano (VM) Glass Labels Guide, 20th Century Glass Encyclopaedia (Consorzio Venezia Vetro label codes, including 022 and 023).
Giovanni Angi, VM – Vetri Murano, MuranoNet, Unfold Venice (history of the Veneziavetro consortium mark and its furnace numbers).
Lino Tagliapietra, official biography and artistic milestones (La Murrina, 1968–1976; Effetre International, 1976–1989).

Historical Context
Egg and mushroom lamps in white swirl glass were among the most successful lighting forms to come out of Murano in the 1970s and 1980s, when the island’s furnaces turned to large mold-blown opaline shades for the international interiors market. The white glass itself belongs to a much older tradition: lattimo, the milk glass first made on Murano in the fifteenth century in imitation of porcelain, and the spiral optic ribbing is a mold technique the Venetian glasshouses have used since the Renaissance. What was new was the scale, the reduction of the lamp to a single self-supporting glass shell, and the way the swirl was made to carry the light.

Lamps of this type are widely offered under the name “Vetri Murano,” but that is not a maker’s name. “Vetri Murano” and the “VM” device are the certification mark introduced in 1981 by the Veneziavetro consortium (Consorzio Venezia Vetro, founded 1975) to guarantee glass made on the island; the mark was designed by Max Huber and Roberto Sambonet, and its labels carried a number identifying the member furnace rather than a brand. Labeled swirl lamps of this family have been recorded with the codes 022 and 023, which the published lists assign to Effetre International, where Lino Tagliapietra was artistic and technical director from 1976 to 1989, and, with some disagreement between the lists, to its sister firm Effetre Murano or to La Murrina, the glasshouse Tagliapietra co-founded in 1968. That is the basis for the trade’s attribution of the model to Effetre and to Tagliapietra. The present pair carries no label, and the design cannot be assigned to a particular furnace or designer with certainty.

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