Vase. Salviati & Co. Murano, late nineteenth century.

SALVIATI & CO. Venice, Murano, late nineteenth century.
Large centerpiece with winged horses.
Murano blown glass and fine gold inclusions.
Exhibits wear consistent with age and use. Presents restorations. Missing a leg of a horse.
Measurements: 41 x 42 x 26 cm.

Murano glass centerpiece, by Saviati & Co, with the bowl in the shape of a lowered aco and lobed profile. Two dragons or winged horses decorate the corners and serve as handles, sculptural motifs that are repeated in the foot. It is a design of courtly inspiration, a piece of art that combines translucent hand-blown glass, finely carved sculptures and fine gold inclusions in its interior.

Antonio Salviati (Vicenza, 1816-1890) was an Italian lawyer and entrepreneur, founder of a Venetian glass factory of great category, responsible for the revival of the Venetian glass industry in the nineteenth century.
A lawyer by profession, in 1866 they partnered with Austen Henry Layard, the archaeologist discoverer of Nineveh, with whom they formed the company Società Salviati e Compagni, based in Venice. The Salviati company won several important commissions, such as the mosaics of the back of the high altar of Westminster Abbey (1867), the ceiling of the Albert Memorial Chapel in Windsor Castle and the Palatine Chapel in Aachen (1870-1875). In 1876 he separated from his English partners and founded a new company which, in addition to mosaics, produced ornamental and table glass in a high-quality Renaissance style. In the 1870s he also produced pieces in imitation of ancient Roman glass. His company competed in all the universal exhibitions of the late nineteenth century.