Incollect Magazine Issue 7

Incollect Magazine 107 historical chandeliers, and today has one of the best shopping selections in the world for anyone in the market for a major piece of vintage glass art. Among the chandeliers they have is an iconic 1930s–1940s Art Deco chandelier with jagged cristallo glass leaves or lighting bolts encasing tiers of milky white bowls. This was a model for a chandelier used by architect Melchiorre Bega for the historic Cafe Majani of Bologna, Italy. A similar model was installed in the historic Gambrinus Cafe in Naples, a gathering place for artists and intellectuals in this southern Italian city since 1860. Ercole Barovier was an artist of his time and introduced a modern sensibility that completely reinvigorated and reinvented the amalgamated brands of Ferro Toso and Barovier. The range of offerings and price points was broadened to include a spectrum of functional glass objects in a variety of designs that were amenable to 20th-century homes. It was a question as much of survival as taste, but to his credit, Ercole Barovier found ways to innovate and evolve the brand while remaining true to its classical design roots as well as the traditional handmade arts of Murano glass. His creative melding of the old and the new to meet changing times can be seen in the Medusa electric torchiere table lamp by Ercole Barovier, for Barovier & Toso circa 1935, offered by The Moderns in London. Not only is this a functional electrical lamp, but it is beautifully made of Venetian crystal blown glass with an iridescent surface designed like a flame made of points of glass pulled from a hot vessel with pliers. “It is like a torch of fire, in Venetian blown glass crystal with iridescent surface effects,” says Jozefien Gronheld at the gallery. Barovier & Toso “Fireworks” chandelier circa 1990s, with adjust- able arms that can be positioned up or down. From Stanislas Reboul on Incollect. “Glassa” wall sconce in salmon blown glass and charcoal enameled metal by the late, much-lauded Italian architect and designer Rodolfo Dordoni for Barovier & Toso, 1988. From Munich Modern on Incollect.