A rare and important pair of Murano Italian studio art glass decanters with stoppers, etched to underside "MURANO" and dated 1985 — postmodern works of extraordinary technical and artistic sophistication, attributed to the studio of Lino Tagliapietra, one of the greatest Murano glass masters of the 20th century.

Lino Tagliapietra (born 1934) is widely regarded as the most accomplished living Venetian glass maestro — a legend whose work commands prices from $5,000 to over $100,000 at auction and is held in over 50 major museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Corning Museum of Glass. His postmodern studio pieces from the 1980s — characterized by bold graphic banding and sculptural stoppers — are among his most collected works.

The Two Decanters:

• Decanter No. 1 — Edition 27/200: Black glass body with blue applied horizontal piping. Disk-form stopper with candy apple red finial handle. Dimensions: 12" H × 4" W × 4" D. Etched underside: MURANO, 1985, 27/200.
• Decanter No. 2 — Edition 2/200: Blue glass body with black applied horizontal piping. Disk-form stopper with black pyramid-form finial handle. Dimensions: 12.5" H × 5" W × 5" D. Etched underside: MURANO, 1985, 2/200.

Edition number 2/200 — the second impression from the edition — is exceptionally desirable among collectors of studio glass and Venetian decorative arts.

Condition:

Good to fair condition. Mild age-related surface wear. Chips and loss to both rims — consistent with age and handling. Does not significantly affect the visual presentation of either piece when displayed. Estate fresh to the market.

Provenance:

Private collection. Estate fresh to market.

A significant pair of Murano studio glass objects from a pivotal moment in postmodern Venetian glassmaking. The bold graphic banding, sculptural stoppers, and numbered limited editions make these outstanding examples of 1980s Italian design at its most inventive.