In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Venice and Murano Glass and Mosaic Co. Ltd (Salviati & Co.) specialised in the production of handmade glass in the ‘traditional Venetian style’. In fact, they adopted certain aspects of historical Venetian glass design and combined these to create new elaborate and fanciful shapes that have little in common with the original glasses that inspired them. Their products were particularly popular in Britain, where the public adored anything Venetian.

This goblet features aventurine – small flat particles of copper dispersed randomly in the glass to create a sparkling effect. Discovered by the Venetians in the 17th century, this type of glass was named from the Italian ‘per avventura’ – ‘by accident’ – and is one of the most difficult to manufacture. The technique of embedding canes of glass was also developed in Murano, in the 16th century, and was called ‘filigrana’ (filigree) decoration, because of its similarity to goldsmiths’ work.