Murano Glass Fish Sculpture, Fratelli Toso, c. 1930s
Good comparable market data and some useful contextual detail on the foundry. Fratelli Toso was founded in 1854 by six brothers, and was joined by Ermanno Toso in 1924, who became artistic director. The fish format is well documented to this maker and period.
A hand-blown Murano glass fish by Fratelli Toso, its jewel-toned body catching light the way only molten glass can.
ARTIST: Vetreria Fratelli Toso
PERIOD: Early 20th Century, c. 1930s
TITLE: Fish
CATEGORY: Decorative Object / Glass
MATERIALS: Blown glass, polychrome paste
DIMENSIONS: 7 × 8 × 3 in.
CONTEXT: Fratelli Toso was established in Murano in 1854 and became one of the island's most celebrated furnaces, known especially for its virtuosic use of color and the millefiori and murrine techniques. This fish, with its swirling green body and crimson fins rendered in polychrome blown glass, is characteristic of the figurative animal work produced by the firm in the 1930s — a period of tremendous technical confidence. The presence of ash particles within the glass is considered a hallmark of authenticity in pieces of this age and origin.