Object
Murano glass
An island that kept one craft for seven centuries
One island, one craft, seven centuries. Murano's value is in technique as much as design — the colour inside the glass rather than on it, and a mark that records which furnace made it.
History
Renaissance and Baroque (16th–18th century) is clear cristallo and coloured filigrana, made for a court.
Nineteenth and twentieth century adds the techniques collectors look for now: pulegoso, sommerso and murrine, signed by the furnace.
What to look for
A maker's mark or label, colour layered within the glass, and a technique — pulegoso, sommerso, murrine — that is hard to fake.
In this group
The searches this object is worth looking at. Each opens the collection for it.