BJ25
Murano glass chandelier, Mid 20th C.
26" high, 26" wide
$5,800.00
Murano was a commercial
port as far back as the 7th Century, and by the 10th Century it had grown into
a prosperous trading center with its own coins, police force, and commercial aristocracy.
Then, in 1291, the Venetian Republic ordered glassmakers to move their foundries
to Murano because the glassworks represented a fire danger in Venice, whose buildings
were mostly wooden at the time. What made Murano's glassmakers so special? For
one thing, they were the only people in Europe who knew how to make a mirror.
They also developed or refined technologies such as crystalline glass, enameled
glass (smalto), glass with threads of gold (aventurine), multicolored glass (millefiori),
milk glass (lattimo), and imitation gemstones made of glass.
