Venetian enamelled and gilt glass was a luxury product exported all over Italy and beyond. The glassmakers of Venice had an excellent and wide spread reputation for high-quality colourless glass and fine workmanship in gilding and enamelling.
Account books and inventories of the time sometimes mention small numbers of 'worked' or 'gilded' glass and often this is stated to have come from Venice or Murano, the Venetian island on which the glass industry was concentrated. The value of such items was often many times as great as that of ordinary glasses and bottles which were used in much greater quantities.
The shape of this sprinkler is derived from silver objects more commonly found in the Middle East, where they were widely used to sprinkle scented water. Some metal sprinklers were made in the Middle East especially for the Italian market, which indicates that this practice must have spread to the West. Our sprinkler was made in Venice and its unidentified European coat of arms, suggests which indicates that it was made as a special commission for an important patron.