Carlo Scarpa for Venini Diamante Murano Glass Table Lamp C. 1936

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Carlo Scarpa for Venini Diamante Murano Glass Table Lamp c. 1936
Hand-Blown Smoky Amber color with twisting form on Gilt … Read more Carlo Scarpa for Venini Diamante Murano Glass Table Lamp c. 1936
Hand-Blown Smoky Amber color with twisting form on Gilt Base and Torchere Glass Diffuser

In 1936 VENINI arrived at the XX Biennale D’Arte in Venice and at the VI Triennale in Milan, where it obtained the Gran Premio with its new glassworks: Diamante by Carlo Scarpa

Dimensions: Height: 38 in (96.52 cm)Diameter: 8 in (20.32 cm)
Place of Origin: United States
Period: 1940-1949
Date of Manufacture: Late 1930s- Early 1940s
Condition: Excellent

More photos available upon request.

Beginning in the 1930s — and throughout the postwar years especially — Venini & Co. played a leading role in the revival of Italy’s high-end glass industry, pairing innovative modernist designers with the skilled artisans in the centuries-old glass workshops on the Venetian island of Murano. While the company’s founder, Paolo Venini (1895–1959), was himself a highly talented glassware designer, his true genius was to invite forward-thinking Italian and international designers to Murano’s hallowed workshops to create Venini pieces — among them Giò Ponti, Massimo Vignelli, Finnish designer Tapio Wirkkala, Thomas Stearnsof the United States and Fulvio Bianconi.

Paolo Venini trained and practiced as a lawyer for a time, though his family had been involved with glassmaking for generations. After initially buying a share in a Venetian glass firm, he took over the company as his own in 1925, and under his direction it produced mainly classical Baroque designs. In 1932, he hired the young Carlo Scarpa— who would later distinguish himself as an architect — as his lead designer. Scarpa, working in concert with practiced glass artisans, completely modernized Venini, introducing simple, pared-down forms; bright primary colors; and bold patterns such as stripes, banding and abstract compositions that utilized cross sections of murrine (glass rods).

Scarpa spent most of his early childhood in Vicenza, before his family moved back to Venice after the death of his mother in 1919. Scarpa studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Venice, and from 1932 until 1947 he was director of the Venini Glassworks. It was here that he first displayed his appreciation for craft, often working with the Venini glassblowers late into the night to perfect new designs. See less