A 1960s Murano glass table lamp by Alfredo Barbini in a glorious shade of aqua.  The fluted, tapered body of bullicante crystal with gold foil inclusions is newly set on a base of Carrara marble and paired with a lovely, vintage, faceted finial and a new shade.  The lamp is completely restored with a three-way socket and new wiring.

ALFREDO BARBINI was an Italian glass artist and designer primarily known for sculptures rendered in a signature vetro sommerso (submerged) technique, where colors or additional pieces are seamlessly introduced to the larger whole.  He was born on the islands of Murano in 1912.  Both parents came from prominent glassmaking families.  Barbini learned the traditional techniques of glassblowing in his teens as an apprentice at the Cristalleria Franchetti and the S.A.I.A.R. Ferro-Toso; by age 20 he was a recognized Maestro.  Briefly employed at a workshop in Milan in 1932, he returned to Murano to work first at the newly formed Zecchin-Martinuzzi firm and then with Seguso Vetri d'Arte.  From 1936 to 1944 he was a partner and master glassblower at Societa Anonima Vetri Artistici Murano (aka S.A.V.A.M.).

Following World War II Barbini collaborated successively with artists Archimede Seguso and Napoleone Martinuzzi and then partnered at Vetreria Vistosi and, later, with artist Gino Cenedese.  In 1950 he started his own furnace, Vetreria Alfredo Barbini (reorganized in 1983 as Alfredo Barbini SRL).  The firm exhibited his work at the Venice Biennales from 1950 to 1961.

Throughout his career, Barbini experimented with glass’s plasticity, creating delicately colored organic and biomorphic objects as well as figurative models and animals.  He died in Venice in 2007.

(Murano’s reputation as a center for glassmaking began near the end of the 13th century when, fearing fire, the Venetian Republic ordered all glassmakers to move their furnaces to its islands.)