Viartec Murano Style Spanish Red & White Neodymium Glass Sculpture

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Product Number: WS11869

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Description

Here is a magnificent large 1950/60's Murano style Spanish freeform glass sculpture. In a stunning combination of red and white speckled glass encased in lilac / smoky blue glass. The outer layer is made in very unusual and quite rare neodymium glass (also known as alexandrite glass), which changes colour according to different lighting conditions. It appears lilac in natural sunlight or yellow artificial light, and smoky blue in fluorescent/white light (see pictures). This is due to the presence of neodymium oxide (Nd²O³) in the glass.

The origin of these sculptures have been a mystery to me for a long time. Although very Murano in style, I once had a piece from this range with a Davidsons label (British glassworks). However it is very different from their normal work, and no others have surfaced with Davidson labels, so the label was probably "added" by someone later. Then another example turned up with an "Icet" label. Icet are or were a Venezuelian factory who produced Murano style glass, so this seemed quite plausible, however, again no other examples with Icet labels have surfaced. Finally, after following a lead from Collectors Weekly, I believe I found the answer. It turns out these sculptures were made by a Spanish factory called Viartec THF. Further research online has resulted in multiple examples with labels that read "Viartec Hand Made in Spain". I also found a couple of online listings of unlabelled examples, where the seller claimed to have bough them while on holiday in Spain in the 1970's. This would explain why they are fairly common here in the UK, Spain being one of our most popular holiday destinations.