An elegant table lamp designed by Carlo Nanson for Mazzega during the 1970's. It features a tubular chrome structure supporting five hand blown opaline glass tubes. The white milky coloured glass fades to translucent and to a clear diffused light. Made in Italy in the 1970s, its mouth blown Murano glass tubes are in perfect original condition. A rare find indeed; sculptural and functional.

Carlo Nason influenced the current tradition of glassmaking on an island renowned for it for hundreds of years. Celebrated for their exceptional designs, Nason’s lighting fixtures are sought after by collectors worldwide.Learning to design and craft pieces from the family ‘vetreria’, rather than partaking in any formal training Nason was working with the maestros at his family’s company furnace, V.Nason & C., attached to their family home when he was just 11 years old. Although his roots are in Murano glassmaking, he took inspiration from the clean lines and natural colours of the Japanese metal vases he had seen in his youth at Milanese fairs.

Wanting to produce modern glass lamps, Nason worked with his family friend Gianni Mazzega of Mazzega, Murano. The 1970s and 1980s were productive and creative years for Nason as the sole and independent designer at Mazzega Murano. After a mere four years as a glassmaker, Carlo Nason had his creations displayed at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York. The credit for the artisan’s pieces that were included in “Glass 1959“ went to his family’s company, but the designs were all authored by Carlo.

Stepping away from the traditional, vibrant Murano stylings, Nason kept true to his inspiration, working with modern and simple forms that are relatively free of colour. In a rare 2019 interview, Nason explained how his emotions inspired the shapes and that his legacy includes fixtures that cannot be replicable or reproduced as Nason made lighting pieces with multiple layers of glass that would be too costly or difficult to recreate today. Some designs were made with processes and materials that are now unavailable or banned in the glassmaking world.

The origins of the Mazzega glassworks date back to 1929, when Romano Mazzega set up a small company in Murano bearing his name. The factory produced high quality pieces, but mostly inspired by the work of its competitors. In 1937, Romano Mazzega was sold to Aureliano Toso, who renamed it Vetri Decorativi Rag. Aureliano Toso. The following year, Romano Mazzega opened a new glassworks, Fratelli Mazzega, in partnership with his brother Gino and sister Maria. The company was renamed I.V.R. (Industrie Vetrarie Riunite) Mazzega, around 1950.

The post-war period offered Mazzega the opportunity to develop the Degli Angeli, a cooperative of artists founded in 1950 in Murano: Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Jean Coartistique considerable with the execution entrusted to the prestigious master Ermanno Nason of a series of creations according to the projects of some of the most famous contemporary artists solicited by the Fucinacteau or Georges Braque. At the same time, it welcomes independent designers such as Luigi Scarpa Croce, Aldo Bergamini, Carlo Scarpa and Renzo Burchiellaro. From 1958 onwards, the company I.V.R. Mazzega had the painter Gianfranco Purisiol as its artistic director. During his four years at Mazzega, he developed a highly original glass art in which the fantastic variety of shapes fully integrates and enhances the successful characteristics of the company's style: luminous colours, softly diffused, in the intimacy of a magnificent crystal. This glassworks ceased all activity in 1983.

Condition: excellent vintage condition, please refer to photographs. Each of the glass tubes is fastened with three screws, unfortunately one of them is lacking but does not detract from the design, stability, or function of the lamp.

Dimensions: 65cm high, 26cm diameter