Venetian Paperweights
Although the Venetians occupied an important position in the history of glass making, their work does not, in the opinion of the writer, entitle them to a first rank position among makers of fine old paperweights. Their colors are rather dull and their workmanship inferior.
| Venetian weights suffer by comparison with the better French product.
The glass used, in the first place, has a lime base, is light in weight
and is easily broken. Instead of a set-up in the center, Venetian
weights usually have a bubble or a circular opening. The Venetian weight
shown to the left is of blown glass, hollow, with an alternating
gold twist and opaque blue stripe.
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The Venetians descrve credit for being the first to invent engraving upon glass, a process which soon spread throughout Europe. They etched their first engraved specimen with a diamond, but they later invented a wheel of copper and lead which worked much faster and better. Much colored enamel glass was used by the Venetians and the fiint glass is extremely elastic and maybe spun so thin as to bend double without breaking.
Apsley Pellatt gives an interesting description of one method used by the Venetians in making their millcfiori weight. They began by taking a double transparent cone, placing the cone between two surfaces. Heat was then applied and the blow pipe was used to draw the air out of the double case. Upon being rewarmed this structure was formed into a homogeneous mass around which the outer structure of the paperweight could be built.
This process was widely different from any employed in other factories which produced paperweights. The filigree twist was used quite extensively, and another specialty was Mosaic glass. The extent to which the Venetians were interested in glass of this time is indicated by the fact that there were 300 glasshouses at Murano at the beginning of the 17th Century, although at the beginning of the present century only one mosaic factory remained and this was closed in 1925. Later the owner, a man named Trade, was persuaded to open it for the purpose of renewing the mosaics in St.Mark's, and this brought about the greatesst revival in the glass industry of the present day.
An example of the Smetz glass produced by this factory is found in a wig stand in the Metropolitan Museum. This was made by rolling lumps of colored glass one into another to imitate agate and other stones. Another specimen consists of fine lace work called Vitro ditrina, which contains fine patterns of intersecting lines of white enamel and transparent glass evenly divided into diamond shaped sections, with an air bubble of uniform size in the center of each.
This process was widely different from any employed in other factories which produced paperweights. The filigree twist was used quite extensively, and another specialty was Mosaic glass. The extent to which the Venetians were interested in glass of this time is indicated by the fact that there were 300 glasshouses at Murano at the beginning of the 17th Century, although at the beginning of the present century only one mosaic factory remained and this was closed in 1925. Later the owner, a man named Trade, was persuaded to open it for the purpose of renewing the mosaics in St.Mark's, and this brought about the greatesst revival in the glass industry of the present day.
An example of the Smetz glass produced by this factory is found in a wig stand in the Metropolitan Museum. This was made by rolling lumps of colored glass one into another to imitate agate and other stones. Another specimen consists of fine lace work called Vitro ditrina, which contains fine patterns of intersecting lines of white enamel and transparent glass evenly divided into diamond shaped sections, with an air bubble of uniform size in the center of each.
