Incollect Magazine Issue 7

104 www.incollect.com C raftsmanship is the word that comes to mind when thinking of Barovier & Toso, a legendary Venetian glassmaker founded in the late 13th century by Jacobello Barovier, owned and operated by his descendants until 2022. Elegance and refinement are other terms that come to mind, for Barovier & Toso has built up a reputation as the supplier of artisanal quality chandeliers, mirrors, and expensive decorative objects to the world’s very rich, royal, and famous. Barovier & Toso is three brands rolled in one, following a marriage between members of two prominent Murano artisanal glassmaking families, Ferro and Toso, leading to the formation of a company called Ferro Toso in 1901 and a subsequent merger in 1936 with the then 650-year-old Barovier family glass business, Vetreria Artistica Barovier & Co. The merger modernized the two businesses and led to a period of unprecedented creativity under the direction of Ercole Barovier, a descendant of Jacobello Barovier and master glass designer. Ercole Barovier is a pivotal figure in the long history of Barovier & Toso and one of the most famous and accomplished glass art designers of all time. “Ercole Barovier changed the Murano glass world with his innovative and daring spirit but always with an irremovable conviction that Murano glass art embodies grace, energy, and respect,” says Fabienne Cosulich from Cosulich Interiors and Antiques in New York, one of the primary dealers in the material across the United States. Despite his formidable place in the firm’s history, Ercole Barovier did not intend to spend his life in service to the family glass business. He originally studied to become a doctor, but following the First World War Barovier&Toso Decorative Glass and Lighting The Timeless Elegance of by Benjamin Genocchio An elegant Art Deco Murano glass chandelier by Ercole Barovier, circa 1930. This rare model was selected by architect/designer Melchiorre Bega to decorate the Palazzino Majani in Bologna. Pulegoso bubbles create a frosted effect on the canopy and the tiered shades, enclosed in a cage of gracefully arching crystal fronds. From Veneziani Arte on Incollect.