Alfredo Barbini

ALFREDO BARBINI (Murano, 1912-2007).
"Fantasy bird".
Glass of different colors.
Measurements: 62 x 18 x 27 cm.

Alfredo Barbini was one of the leading Murano glassmakers of the twentieth century. He began his long career in 1925 working in the factory SAIAR Ferro Toso, to join the Cristalleria di Venezia e Murano in 1929 as a master glassblower. He left that company in 1932 to work in a glass workshop in Milan, but returned to Murano to work first in the newly formed firm Zecchin & Martinuzzi and then in Seguso Vetri d'Arte. From 1936 to 1944 he was a partner and master glassmaker at Societa Anonima Vetri Artistici Artistici Murano, known as SAVAM. After World War II, Barbini worked as a master glassblower and designer successively with Archimede Seguso and Napoleone Martinuzzi, then became a partner of Vetreria Vistosi and, later, of Gino Cenedese. With the financial support of the Salviati & C. company, for which he manufactured products, he founded his own glass company, Vetreria Alfredo Barbini (reorganized in 1983 as Alfredo Barbini Srl) in 1950. His firm exhibited his work at the Venice Biennales from 1950 to 1961. He died in 2007. Among many other honors, Barbini received the "Osella d'Oro" from the Associazione degli Industriale of Venice and the honorary title of "Commendatore" and was named "Venetian of the Year 1989" by the Settimare Association.