Vintage Murano Cobalt Opaline Glass Ruffled Bud Vase – Italian Lattimo Swirl, Hand-Blown Crimped Rim, Venetian Mid-Century Decor 1960s

A small Murano art-glass bud vase from the studios of the Venetian lagoon — cobalt blue cased over milky-white lattimo opaline, blown by hand, swirled at the lip, and finished with a flame-formed crimped ruffled rim that flares open like a small trumpet. The two glass layers run as a marbled swirl through the body: deep Venetian cobalt wrapping translucent over the milky opaline, no two pieces identical because the swirl is hand-rotated at the bench rather than moulded. The base reads almost pure white, the upper body deepens into cobalt, and the ruffled rim catches both colours where the lip flares outward.

Murano has been the centre of European art glass since 1291, when the Venetian Republic relocated the city's glass workshops to the island to keep their furnace fires safely away from Venice itself. By the 20th century the Murano studios — Seguso, Barovier & Toso, Salviati, Venini, Fratelli Toso, Cenedese — were the most-collected European art-glass houses, and small cobalt-and-lattimo stem vases like this one are the pieces the mid-century Murano workshops issued for export to the American and Canadian markets through the 1960s and 70s. The original paper Vetro di Murano / Made in Italy sticker has come off (which is true of most surviving Murano pieces — the stickers were never meant to survive long-term display), but the style is unmistakable: cased layers, swirled hand-rotation, flame-pinched ruffled rim.

The form is the Murano posy vase / stem vase — small enough for a single bloom (a wild rose, a sprig of lilac, dried baby's breath), tall enough to stand on a mantel or console as a standalone glass object. The hand-crimped rim is a flame-formed detail; each ruffle is shaped by the glassmaker reaching into the still-soft glass with a wooden tool and pinching the lip as it cools.

A piece for the Murano / Italian art-glass collector, for the mid-century-modern / Venetian-style interior, for the cottagecore or grandmillennial vignette, for the single-stem flower lover, or as a Mother's Day / housewarming / wedding gift.