Napoleone Martinuzzi for Venini Murano Art Glass Green Apple Sculpture, Italy, c. 1926. acid-etched signature; Murano green cased glass with applied gold leaf.

2.75 h x 4 w x 4.5 d in (7 x 10 x 11 cm). Signed with three-line acid stamp to underside 'Venini Murano Italia'.

Vittorio Zecchin designed a number of realistic shaped glass fruit in 1921-2 which were displayed in Paris in 1922. In 1926, Martinuzzi added to the Venini catalogue with cased colored glass versions of those extraordinary pieces. He made them in vividly colored opaque matter (cased glass or glass paste, often in unusual combinations, sometimes with gold leaf or iridescent finish, as shown in his margin notes on furnace drawings.). A wide arrange of these ‘new’ fruits were exhibited at the 3rd Monica Biennale (1927) where they were spread around in different rooms and placed next to transparent glass (Zecchin’s clear glass designs from prior years). By 1930, new fruits and vegetables were added to the ouevre and colors and finishes (more gold leaf and also a crackled finish) would become more and more ‘modern’ in their implausible-ness. Here we have an extremely rare example of an early Martinuzzi cased glass green apple with gold leaf application. It bears the date appropriate acid-etched signature. Many apples from this era are in the crackle finish (which made acid etched signatures impossible). Extremely rare to find a smooth finish example with signature. 1926-1927.

Reference:

Marino Barovier, Napoleone Martinuzzi: Venini 1925-1931; page 165, 177 (fruit model 2421).

Provenance:

Private Collection, Sweden :