Paolo Venini (1895-1959) Italian, (2) Murano Glass Vases. A matching pair of one of his classic elegant designs in a light brown color. 

Size: 13 x 6 x 5 1/2 in. 

Paolo Venini was born on January 12th, 1895 in the town of Cusano near Milan, Italy. After serving in the Royal Italian Army in World War I, he trained as a lawyer and began his practice in Milan. He soon developed an acquaintance with Giacomo Cappellin, a native of Venice who owned an antiques shop in Milan, and together sought out new items to sell to his clientele. In 1921 Venini and Cappellin opened a glass factory called Vetri Soffiati Muranesi Cappellin Venini & C. on the islands of Murano, the historic glass production center in the lagoon of Venice, Italy. With Luigi Ceresa and Emilio Hochs as investors, they arranged to purchase the recently closed Murano glass factory of Andrea Rioda, hire the former firm’s glassblowers, and retain Rioda himself to serve as technical director of the venture. However, Rioda died before production had begun, prompting several of the principal glassblowers to leave the new company and found their own under the name Successori Andrea Rioda. Several distributors in Milan gave them additional support, and Venini himself emerged as one of the leading figures in the production of Murano glass, eventually recognized as one of the most important contributors to 20th Century Italian glass design. His drive to introduce new, modern concepts led to disputes with Cappellin, who left the company in 1925 and pilfered several of Venini’s master glassblowers. Venini reorganized and hired new, younger blowers who were eager to explore different techniques, renaming the company Venini & C. Due to failing health in the late 1930s he entrusted the creative direction to Murano sculptor Napoleone Martinuzzi, but arranged collaborations with architects and designers such as Cini Boeri, Tomaso Buzzi, Gio Ponti, and Massimo Vignelli, who would go on to design the company’s new logo in 1982. In 1959 Venini died of a pulmonary embolism caused by acute thrombosis, and his son continued to manage the company, followed by his nephew, until it was sold to a private equity firm in 1985 who reorganized it as Società Venini S.p.A. They were acquired by Royal Scandinavia Group in 1997, then sold to Italian Luxury Industries Group in 2001, before finally winding up in the portfolio of Damiani S.p.A. in 2016. Several of Venini’s original designs are still made by this company, with countless modern sculptors and designers building off of his legacy still, today.