An “Avventurina” Murano Glass Vase by Seguso Vetri d'Arte

Of Fluted bell form

Signed to the underside

Height: 40cm Width: 24cm

Seguso Vetri d'Arte was formed in 1932 by Archimede Seguso, Angelo Seguso, Bruno Seguso, Luigi Olimpio Ferro, Napoleone Barovier and Antonio Ernesto. Archimede Seguso was the "Maestro di prima piazza", until he left in 1942 to form his own company Vetreria Archimede Seguso. Flavio Poli, famous for his designs using the "Sommerso" technique, was artistic director from 1937 - 1963. The company closed in 1972.

Avventurina is a type of glass which was invented in Murano around 1620. It presents within its mass countless particles of gold. The secret of preparing avventurina, known over the centuries to very few expert glassmasters, is, when the fusion is finished, to add multiple small and successive doses of reducing raw materials such as iron shavings, metallic silicon, or coal, until the metallic copper begins to precipitate. An adequate very slow cooling cycle for the molten glass determines the separation of the metallic copper from the glass base. The quality of the avventurina depends on how homogeneously the gold is distributed and how large the gold is which at best can reach one millimeter in size, are. The origin of the term avventurina is clearly indicated by the XVIIth century glassmaster Giovanni Darduin: “it is called venturina, and with reason, because it comes more out of fortune (“ventura”) than science.”