Murano glass bowl

A colourful glass bowl with characteristic sommerso technique and organic form, offered as authentic Murano glass. AntiqBot examined colour intensity, air bubbles, finish and form typology for consistency with mid-20th-century Murano production.

Murano glass and the sommerso technique

Murano is an island in the Venice lagoon that has been the centre of the Venetian glass industry since the 13th century. The Venetian republic relocated its glassblowers to Murano in 1291 to reduce fire risk in the city, and over the centuries the island's residents developed techniques unmatched anywhere in the world.

Sommerso (literally "submerged" in Italian) is a technique in which multiple layers of coloured glass are blown over one another, with each layer fully "submerged" within the next. The result is an optical depth effect where colour layers are visible through transparent glass as floating planes. The technique was perfected in the 1930s by master glassblowers such as Flavio Poli for the house of Seguso and reached its peak between 1950 and 1970.

That very popularity makes authentication complex: Murano-style glass is mass-produced in Asian factories, and even on Murano itself cheaper production methods exist that mimic the visual characteristics of classic sommerso without the technical quality of the great masters.

How AntiqBot examined this object

Findings of this analysis

• Colour intensity high and pure: No grey undertones or colour impurities visible. Consistent with Murano pigment use.
• Air bubble pattern organically distributed: Micro air bubbles not regularly placed. Indicates hand-blown production.
• Wall thickness variable: Slight irregularities in wall thickness visible on transparency photos. Characteristic of handcraft.
• Finish of high quality: No sharp burrs or unfinished transition edges. Rim evenly and smoothly finished.
• Form typology consistent with 1950–1975: Organic, freely asymmetric bowl form fits within the Murano mid-century production repertoire.
• No Murano label or pontil mark visible: Base photo insufficiently sharp for definitive assessment. Presence of marking not confirmed.
• Master signature not established: Without attribution to a specific master (Poli, Barbini, Seguso, Venini), the upper limit of the value indication remains constrained.

Market value of Murano sommerso glass

Murano sommerso bowls without master signature consistently achieve between €200 and €600 at auctions and antique dealers, depending on size, colour combination and condition. Pieces with proven master attribution or a rare colour combination can achieve considerably higher results.

Attribution to a known master strongly increases value. A Flavio Poli bowl for Seguso from the 1950s achieves €1,500 to €6,000 at Sotheby's or Christie's. A Carlo Scarpa design for Venini from the same period reaches up to €15,000. Without documented attribution, the value indication for this piece remains in the range of €300 to €500.

Asian sommerso imitations can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from authentic Murano in photographs. The most reliable indicators in photos are the colour intensity and the air bubble pattern, both present in this piece. Physical inspection of the base and wall thickness provides certainty when higher values are at stake.