Collection: Vintage and Found

Vintage Murano Glass and Found Objects

The smaller, older side of the shop: handblown Italian glass and the objects that go around a table with it. Everything here is a single piece rather than part of a run, and everything is sourced rather than bought new, so sizes and colours vary between what you see and what arrives.

The Murano bowls are the centre of it, and they sit with the rest of the glass and porcelain. Murano is the island off Venice where glassmaking has been concentrated since the thirteenth century, and both pieces here are handblown in that tradition. The Bullicante bowl uses a technique where air is trapped in the glass to create a field of controlled bubbles, which catches light and gives the surface a soft, almost frosted quality. The Alfredo Barbini bowl is in the same soft aqua family, and Barbini was one of the twentieth-century Murano masters whose work is collected on its own terms rather than as a souvenir. Both work as a catchall for keys and jewellery, or simply as something to look at.

The match strikers are the other half of the collection, alongside the candle accessories. The black handblown ones are made by glassblowers in Dallas rather than in Italy, one at a time, and each arrives with a box of matches. The inside is textured so a match can be struck against it, and once the matches are gone it holds toothpicks or nothing at all. Because they are blown by hand, the tone and the size shift a little from one to the next, which is worth expecting rather than worrying about.

Between the two there is a natural pairing: a bowl for a sideboard and a striker for the same room, which is how most of these leave the shop.

If you are looking for a particular maker, colour or size, reach out to us. We source these as we find them, so what is on the website is what is currently here, and we can tell you what we know about any specific piece.

We keep the range in stock as pieces come in. If there is something particular you are looking for that you are not able to find on the website, reach out to us and we will be glad to help.