Seguso Vetri d'Arte - Flavio Poli Designs (Murano)

Large footed bowl, c.1942:

Bowl, c.1950s design:

'Collar' vase with incalmo construction, sheared and hotworked to resemble a shirt collar - from a small series of collared vases, designed probably in the 1950s.

Large sommerso vase, designed c.1954/55.

Nic....can i ask a stupid question...unless they actually have a label...how can you tell whats what. Is it largely experience ?

A lot of it relies on a well-stocked reference library, good provenance and/or personal experience of handling the glass. Labels can be removed and swapped, and signatures can be added, so they're not always to be trusted.

The amber footed bowl in the first post, for example, has no label, but was originally acquired from Seguso's old archive warehouse that they emptied out a few years back.

The collar vase I'm fortunate enough to have an illustration of from the factory's design workbook.

The small dish is a fairly common and well-recorded piece so the label could be taken at face value.

And the tall sommerso vase has a recorded but often copied colour combination, and is in a not at all common shape, so that was attributed by the finish and quality of the piece - which match Poli's other vases of the period exactly - with the colours and label as only secondary considerations.

Thanks very much...i'm looking forward to the Mid Century Italian exhibition at Kings Lynn