‘Murano’ is a word that evokes many different visions: myriads of enchanting colours; spun creations that appear to be made of sugar; bold fluid lines. In brief, it is a byword for Italian art glass excellence.

This small island off Venice has a formidable reputation, and a history as colourful as it’s creations. With Venice being at the forefront of the Renaissance militarily, and the first state to leave the Dark Ages behind culturally, Murano soon became central to the Republic’s trade between Europe and the affluent kingdoms of the East. With it’s plentiful access to sand and other raw materials, the world’s greatest glass blowers flocked there, and by the end of the thirteenth century the Grand Council of Venice decreed this emigration compulsory. Murano became a gilded cage from which master craftsmen were forbidden to leave, lest they would take their secrets with them. To sweeten this pill, the council granted the blowers unique privileges, such as the right to marry their daughters into Venetian nobility, and more importantly for their craft, they were permitted to participate in the magnificent Venetian pageants, which became world renowned. Soon every royal and rich bourgeoisie family prided itself in owning these peerless creations, even as far as Henry VIII in England.

This great period, however, was not destined to last. Whilst La Serenissima Repubblica danced and paraded in its famous carnivals, real military power shifted to Napoleon and then the Austrian empire, which heavily taxed the glass industry to protect and promote its Bohemian factories. Murano was left to languish and provide little more challenging work than glass beads for Austria’s colonial trade.

The turning point in the history of Murano’s rebirth is the foundation of Salviati in 1859 by a local lawyer Antonio Salviati in collaboration with the master technician Lorenzo Radi. Assiduously spotting a real need in the market after years of neglect, Salviati focussed at first on mosaic tesserae production, pieces of which can be seen in the cupola of St Paul’s Cathedral, and a portrait of Prince Albert donated to the Victoria & Albert Museum. Furthermore, he cleverly collected as many antique pieces of glass as could be found into a design museum, in order to teach young glass makers the techniques which had nearly disappeared. After mastering the art of recreation, Salviati stirred the glass blowers on to invent new techniques such as Zanfirico, or filigree, by which mesmerising twisted spirals of glass cane are incorporated within a glass body, or rediscovering millefiori (a thousand flowers), a technique now synonymous with Muranese glass whereby fragments of different coloured glass can be assembled and melted together to form patterns as was used two thousand years ago.

From this small company were to follow all the other well known family names of Murano. The Baroviers, Segusos and, ultimately even Venini, all owe their existence to the vision and hard work of one man, Antonio Salviati, who fostered a spirit of cooperative competition. Fittingly the great glass loving British public played a part in the success of Salviati, as the company received much needed financial backing from Britain, and England was it’s main market in the early days of trading, thanks to John Ruskin’s recommendation, and the hordes of young gentleman returning home armed with precious gifts from their Grand Tour.

The road has come full circle. At the start of another century, Salviati is poised once again to take the initiative and ignite the creative fires on Murano, with Vessel and Britain’s greatest talents acting as the catalysts.