Collecting Murano Glass and Art Glass

A practical guide to recognising, valuing and caring for art glass with a method. The book starts from technique — filigrana, lattimo, murrine, sommerso, incalmo, aventurine — because the working of the glass is what reveals the hand of a furnace and the period of a piece. It explains how to examine an object: the pontil mark on the base, the bubbles, the wall thickness, the behaviour of colour and what the metal oxides say, from cobalt blue to iron greens. It teaches how to separate a Venetian piece from an imitation made elsewhere, how to read signatures, engraved marks and labels, and which signs point to a fake or a married piece. It covers what actually forms the price — period, technique, condition, rarity — everyday conservation and restoration, and the real dynamics of the market across auctions, fairs and private sales. A closing section works through concrete cases, the mistakes that recur most often, and an action plan for building a coherent collection.