Featured Venice & Murano Glass Co. Snake Ewer

Found this Venice & Murano Glass & Mosaic Co. ewer c.1880 at an estate auction, was labeled as “Art Glass Vase with Fish Motif” lol. I was able to find an Art Blart post and another blog post about an exhibit called “Liquid Light” by the NGV with very similar examples that were much prettier than mine. I checked the catalogue online and couldn’t find the ones from the exhibit either. It’s also a bit damaged, but not as bad as one of NGV ewers. Still think the snake looks a bit odd…

https://cannonhillchronicles.com/2020/07/11/liquid-light/

https://artblart.com/2020/03/14/exh...enetian-glass-at-ngv-international-melbourne/ (scroll down)



Museum Examples:

 

Cool Weird, but cool. Dolphins at the base?

 

nice photo's !

 

Unusual but cool. Dig the colours..

 

Quirky and beautiful.

Agree. Makes me wonder if the snake is a sea snake.

 

Interesting thought. Maybe some kind of serpent and that’s why it looks so odd.

 

I think that’s what they were going for… No idea honestly.

 

It looks weird because that's not where the eyes are on snakes, & yours appears to have molars rather than fangs.

This mosaic is of Oceanus & Tethys:

 

Oh wow, so is it supposed to be a Ketos?

 

I'm not assuming the designer's concept was that coherent, but it would tie in with the dolphins & the ewer shape.

 

Personally, I'm very fond of Kolowisi.

 

This really doesn't add to the information but it certainly resembles yours.

Murano Italian Art Glass Pitcher With Snake Handles - Mar 09, 2023 | Schultz Auctioneers In Ny https://share.google/fbEsWFZOJHMjWJD2s

 

I suspect it is the same one.

 

Maybe they dropped it, mine has few cracks and chips, but this was from a estate sale company in RI.

 

The dolphins seem to be placed slightly differently.

 

They do mention the missing tail fins which seem to be missing on both but the location of the dolphins does seem different.

 

Was trying to compare the way the tail of the serpent handle trails off, but photos not quite comparable. The dolphin placement is too subtle for me to pick up on. I really struggle with 2D representations of 3D objects.