Alfredo Barbini

Alfredo Barbini was arguably the finest Murano glassblower of the mid-20th century. Born in 1912, he earned the title of maestro before he was 20. In 1950 he set up his own workshop. As far as we know, he's still alive.

Thick-cased folded ashtrays such as this one are recognisable as Barbini pieces by their quality. The use of gold powder in the glass mix, as in the white layer on this one is typical. This one, which we sold on Trade Me for a bargain price of about $200, also has copper aventurine on one of the inside layers.

Many of them have bullicante patterns – controlled bubbles – as in this lighter and cigarette holder. Because of the pressure of getting the website ready pre-Christmas, we don't have pieces like this currently listed. If you want something in this style, contact us.

Weil Ceramics, a long-defunct US importer, brought much of the Barbini output into the US and many Barbini pieces are identifiable by the "Alfredo Barbini for Weil Ceramics" stickers. The picture below is the cover of a Weil catalogue from 1965.