Vintage Italian Organic Blown ‘Sommerso Fumato’ Bowl, Attrb. To Alfredo Barbini

Vintage Italian Organic Blown ‘Sommerso Fumato’ Bowl, Attributed To Alfredo Barbini for VAMSA

A beautiful densely blown glass bowl with a rounded, organic shape displays a frothy white sommerso interior and smoky tobacco grey top overlay.
Made for V.A.S.M.A by Alfredo Barbini, (1912-2007) for VAMSA, Murano, Italy, 1936-1940 , model 225

Alfredo Barbini, a master glassblower who worked with V.A.M.S.A (Vetri Artistici Muranesi Società per Azioni) from 1936 to 1944. He is known for his sculptural work with thick glass and distinctive chromatic effects, including “sfumato” glass.

“The glass factory was founded in 1925 by Augusto Hreglivh, under the name S.A.V.A.M. (Società Anonima Vetri Artistici Murano), with a production of classic blown glass. In 1936 it became V.A.M.S.A. (Vetreria Artistica Muranese Società Anonima), and counted Alfredo Barbini among the partners, as a first-rate master. His artistic personality, strongly influenced by the direct collaboration with Napoleone Martinuzzi, master for the Zecchin-Martinuzzi furnace, marked the entire production, characterized by the use of thick glass, with inclusions of bubbles, metal powders, and other forms of internal decoration. Two distinct typological strands can be distinguished: one of ‘sommerso’ glass with purely twentieth century lines, such as the vases presented at the 1938 Venice Biennale, and one of naturalistic-inspired sculptures, with the use of colored glass pastes, surface and new etching interior decoration techniques such as ‘smoked glass’.”
Dimensions: 10.75″ long, 7″ deep, 4″ high