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Glow-up for Barovier&Toso as Murano Glassmaker Approaches Eighth Century in Business
Top: Etime by Luca Nichetto (left) and Agave by Garcia Cumini; center: Profile of Nichetto; below: Etime by Nichetto and Agave by Garcia Cumini (left) and Aurora by Nichetto. Photos: Mattia Parodi, Cameranesi + Pompili
Few brands have as important a history as Murano glassmaker Barovier&Toso, which dates back to the Renaissance, one of the oldest family-owned businesses in the world. The company’s product in those early days – as evidenced by the wealth of archive material – was incredibly innovative, even now well ahead of its time; In recent years, however, it has become so steeped in culture that it began to lose a little of what made it special. Aiming at that scientific level again, Barovier&Toso has recently renewed, hiring Andrea Signoroni as its first CEO, Luca Nichetto as artistic director, and the creative agency Studio Blanco to develop its new identity. The resulting collection, released this spring in Milan, cleverly touches on the past as an accessory, yet lives squarely in the present.
It’s hard to imagine anyone better suited to his new role than Nichetto, whose work in all mediums finds its roots in glass. He says: “I was born in Venice and grew up in Murano. “99 percent of my friends and relatives were connected to the glass industry. My design style was born out of glass; it is part of me.” But that connection can make Nichetto sensitive to the way the word “Murano” is used. Speaking about last year’s Salone, he says, “you can see the effect of many peopleto sayMurano didn’t really know what to do with it. “
The pieces revealed at the Salone, for the first presentation of Barovier & Toso since the relaunch, show that Nichetto knows exactly what to do with it, and how to combine the tensions and contradictions that exist in glass – between fragility and eternity, transparency and weight, in the luster obtained by dipping in the furnace. From Nichetto’s studio comes Etime, a collection of volumes resembling colorful ice cubes decorated with circular stamps. His Aurora table lamp reimagines the oil lamp with a ribbed glass base and diffusers that produce subtle visible light. And with his Profilo suspended lamp, layered glass discs create a curvy, organic silhouette that resembles a cairn of stacked flat stones.
Nichetto commissioned works from other designers as well: spiky lamps with a gradient effect from García Cumini and hourglass-shaped vessels made by Studio Lani, inspired by traditional neck ornaments in Nigeria. Keiji Ashizawa’s vases refer to the art of ikebana, while those of Emmanuel Babled understand glass as a geological element. Lidded vases by Claesson Koivisto Rune of Stockholm can be stacked architecturally and blown usingthe cortexprocess, which gives the glass a bark-like texture. As such, these pieces still rely on glassmaking techniques that have evolved over the centuries – new takes what you pay for what has gone before.
The Lagoon Tones and Translucent and Touchable Glass Qualities Inspired This Remodel
Barovier&Toso for Studio Blanco’s new logotype and branding materials take cues from the glassmaker’s former waterfront headquarters at the turn of the 20th century in Murano.
The Italian agency Studio Blanco, founded in 2005 by Sara and Valerio Tamagnini, is able to give language and structure to what is often elusive: feeling and spirit (akavibes). When Barovier&Toso asked them to create a revised and improved identity, they went straight to an incredibly rich source – Murano, a place so steeped in history and beauty that the common name brings to mind every visible language, like when people say “Eames,” or “Beyoncé.” When the couple met the symbols from the former naval headquarters of Barovier&Toso at the beginning of the 20th century, Fondamenta Vetrai 28, it became the basis of the new logo: thin, curved caps with a small serif combining both weight and lightness. From there, they imagined a wider universe inspired by the tones of the harbor and the tactile texture of glass. “We were interested in qualities such as transparency, thoughtfulness, and precision, which informed both the visual system and the redesign process itself,” they said. “Even the evolution of the logo followed the same idea as making glass: reshaping an existing form instead of completely changing it.”
Studio Blanco’s process focuses on identifying what is unique and meaningful about the client, even if those elements have been isolated or diluted over the years. “We’re trying to understand what makes a product compatible with the interior,” they said. “But it’s equally important to recognize what’s no longer working: viewing habits, excesses, or past decisions that may have weakened the brand’s vision. Often, those contradictions become useful signs,” guiding what needs to be removed, clarified, or redefined. For Barovier&Toso, that meant working “with subtraction and measurement: correcting measurements, clarifying details.” They collaborated with artist Sarah Martinson on a composition inspired by the historical techniques of Venetian paper-marbling, and with photographers Matthieu Lavanchy, Mattia Parodi, and Piergiorgio Sorgetti, they set a certain mood. Milanese creative consultants Cameranesi & Pompili contributed to the design of the set. Although their efforts are focused on the birthplace of Barovier&Toso, it was also important for Studio Blanco to look outside. They say: “Part of the job was to translate the emotional and material richness of Murano into a language that could still resonate with someone who might never experience that land directly.”
The Story of the Barovier&Toso Archive Combined with the History of Murano Glass
Barovier&Toso chandeliers were found in the brand’s history, dating back to the 13th century.
While glassmaking in Venice dates back to the Roman Empire, Murano glass began at the end of the 13th century, when a new law required all glass to be installed on the island north of the city. The Barovier name has been associated with Murano glass ever since. When the industry first became popular, in the middle of the 15th century, the glassmaker Angelo Barovier invented a formula free of lead and arsenic that resulted in an unprecedentedly clear glass (“vetro cristallino”). During this time, Angelo also created the famous Coppa Barovier wedding bowl – deep blue glass decorated with polychrome and gold craftsmanship in a process that is still used today, and “when the art of glass is pushed to the highest level,” says Nichetto.
Changing trade patterns, international politics, and competition from other parts of Europe led to Murano’s decline in the following centuries, but it did not end completely. And when, in the middle of the 19th century, six brothers opened Fratelli Toso, they focused on the historical methods of glassmaking, marking the beginning of the revival of Murano glass in general. In the 20th century, another Barovier – Ercole – helped bring Murano glass into modern style. His work was highly experimental, such as the cracked Primavera series of 1930, which was the result of accidental chemical mixing that could not be replicated precisely (such pieces are highly sought after at auction). He was also known for using thick glass and a technique calledcolorazione a caldo senzafusion, leading to his 1930s collections Laguna Gemmata, Marina Gemmata, and Autunno Gemmato. Working as the chief designer of the companies that had merged into Barovier & Toso, Ercole experimented with rostrato glass, which transforms “the surface of the glass into a sculpture, made of pins, reliefs, and refractions,” says CEO Andrea Signoroni. “It is a very clear example of Barovier&Toso’s ability to innovate within culture, taking something beyond its decorative dimensions and transforming it into an independent expressive language.”
Dating back centuries, the Barovier&Toso archive is full of pieces whose beauty is matched by cultural density. “Each object carries the master’s hand, the memory of the furnace, the trace of living imperfection, the discovery of a certain thread and its connection to a specific historical moment,” Signoroni said. “A good piece of Barovier&Toso is anonymous; it is pedigree.” The challenge now, as Signoroni sees it, is not to preserve this history “as something constant, but to keep it alive with modern design, new interactions, and a language that can speak to an international audience without losing the depth of our origins.”
Buying…
BAROVIER&TOSO GLASS MARKS
In 2014, a moving grid vase set in aventurine designed by Ercole Barovier – Barovier&Toso’s chief designer from the 1920s to the 1970s – fetched $317,000 at Wright’s auction in Chicago. Luckily for us, there are still some very interesting pieces from the company’s archives available on the secondary market at a reasonable (or at least not Warholian) price. If you are eager to find your Barovier&Toso historical pieces and want to know which applications are considered important from a collector’s point of view, CEO Andrea Signoroni has identified a few that convey the “soul” of the brand:
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“Ercole Barovier’s Primavera series, created in the late 1920s and early 1930s, is one of the most interesting episodes in the history of Murano glass: a material effect born of experimentation.
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“The rostrato glass works are important because they show Barovier&Toso’s ability to transform the surface of glass into something almost architectural and pictorial. Glass is no longer just transparent or luminous. It becomes a relief, a vibration, a living thing.”
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“The large chandeliers and lighting works that have defined the identity of Barovier & Toso over time are important because they translate the artistic vocabulary of Murano into space. The chandelier is not just an object. The presence, the relationship between the glass, the architecture, and the light. But my advice would be not to start in the market, but from comparing the pieces, understanding the eye pieces, a deep understanding and human understanding. the proportions, colors and finishing of the Murano glass is a world of nuances, and not enough collected pieces have a strong or artistic identity and say something: about the furnace, the historical period, the author and the origin of the glass.
Below are examples of our favorite Barovier&Toso archive pieces, some of which are available — at least for now!
An Egeo vase (left) and an important Primavera vase (right) by Ercole Barovier that sold for $293,000 in 2016.
Ercole Barovier Argo vase (left), with fluted sconce (right), $2,475
Barovier&Toso bronze vanity mirror (left), $5,000, and vase (right), $1,628
Barovier&Toso Pulegoso vase (left), $8,385, and Eugenio pitcher (right)