History of Murano

Here is a brief history of Murano Glass as told by our producers in Italy.

"In his 'Natural History', Pliny the Elder relates "How, after they had disenbarked on the shores with a cargo of salpetre and had lighted a fire to cook their food, a handful of navigators from Phoenicia found, amidst the burning hot firebrands, lumps of matter that began to glitter as they became colder." That was the way the accidentally discovered the formula of glass, a substance which is derived from the combination of the silicon."

"Still remaining in the realm of legend, we can presumably attribute the Phoenicians with the merit of having perfected the technique of blown glass in the neighborhood of the first century AD.  In the following centuries, the manufacture of blown glass landed in Murano, one of the small isles of the Venecians lagoon.  From there, glass started it's diffusion in Europe and on into the rest of the world."

"A typical and exclusive example of Venetian manufacture, known and aclaimedin the whole world, is called MURRINA (due to the fact that, during Roman times, sticks of raw glass were called MURRINI)."

"MURRINA is made out of handmade glass obtained by the longitudinal or traversal joining of segments of sticks of various colors, then, following the artist's inspriration; the segments are fused together in an oven so as to have them, once softened by the high heat, weld into one mass for shaping. This designing and shapping takes multiple firings to get the desired effect."

"Then, after the glass design is cooled, it is ground and turn polished until perfect smoothness is achieved. The tecnique is designed so that each object that comes from the Master Glass-Maker exhibits an inimitable pattern."

"The MURANO GLASS, fine and elegant, are unique precious pieces with, iridescent, ever changing chromatism appearing as the diurnal light varies."

Produced by GEN's si A Ceolon

ITALY

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Murano Glass