FULVIO BIANCONI (1915-1996), A RARE ‘SCOZZESE’ VASE, MODEL NO. 4592, CIRCA 1957

FULVIO BIANCONI (1915-1996)
A rare ‘Scozzese’ vase, model no. 4592, circa 1957
mould-blown fused coloured and lattimo glass canes
executed by Venini & C., Murano, Italy
11 7/8 x 7 x 5 ¼ in. (30 x 18 x 13.5 cm.)
underside incised F BIANCONI 57

Pre-Lot Text
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF BIANCA CARRARO
The Scozzesi vases are amongst the rarest models by Fulvio Bianconi Venini produced.
Only two other examples of this model are known today, one is in the Chiara and Francesco Carraro Foundation - on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art in Ca' Pesaro in Venice - the other in a private Swiss collection (recently at auction in Paris).
A third example, already part of the Venini Museum collection, was lost at the end of the 1980s and its whereabouts are currently unknown.
Conceived by Bianconi in the mid-1950s, the Scozzesi were a complex elaboration of the chromatic schemes and shapes adopted from the Pezzati, a series that had achieved great success. Flattened, fused coloured glass canes were woven together with thin ribbons of Lattimo glass to form a decoration called Scozzese. The vases, of distinctive geometric forms, were attained by blowing the malleable glass into wooden moulds, manually taken apart and, after cooling, then finely polishing both rim and base at the wheel. The complexity of the production process was most likely the reason why only very few examples were executed, mostly prototypes. The cost of production for the Scozzesi series must have been of such magnitude that the series was deemed incompatible with the furnace’s capacity, and therefore unfit for serial production.
In retrospect, we can say that these rare objects are emblematic of one of the highest points of artistic expression in 20th century Murano glass, and best express the creative flair that characterised its production from the 1950s.
The provenance of these Scozzesi vases, Galleria Blanchaert in Milan, deserves a special mention. Opened in 1957 by Silvia Blanchaert, the gallery was perhaps one of the first in the world to trade in objects, mostly unique or out of production, of glass art. Through her friendship with the Venini family, and in particular with Paolo's daughter Anna Venini de Santillana, Ms. Blanchaert had the exclusive liberty to visit the Venini furnace at pleasure and directly engage with the artists. These recurrent visits gave her the opportunity to befriend Fulvio Bianconi, for whom, especially after the artist moved to Milan, she became the main representative gallerist.
The collector, by virtue of her innate good taste, had the foresight to acquire these works towards the end of the 1970s, long before collecting 20th Century Muranese glass became a widespread international trend. Now specialised in contemporary glass art, the gallery is still active today under the direction of her son Jean Blanchaert.
Franco Deboni