Customer Reviews

Fratelli Toso Italian Glass 1854-1980

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I spent a month reading books about Murano art glass from libraries in my area, and after looking at at least 6 different books, this was my favorite. The pictures are beautiful, and divided by vases/paperweights/ bowls etc. The murrine examples are terrific! The writing is well done and there are lots of examples in color. I highly recommend this book. It was a worthwhile purchase.

The photography in this book is marvelous. I did think the repeated images on pages 82 - 85 rather odd. I would have preferred much larger single images. I felt like it was wasting page space to do that. There are other pages that have blank areas that could have been filled with larger pictures.

There is one fault in this book that gives me pause: On page 202 is pictured an egg shaped latticino paperweight with scattered millefiori. That paperweight is not Fratelli Toso. It's a Chinese imitation. Fratelli's eggs have a different profile being more bullet shaped and less 'eggy.' The canes in that paperweight are very commonly found in Chinese paperweights, the spade cane being the most distinctive.

If I knew what I know now about the book, I still would have bought it. The photos of the murrine vases make the book worth it to me.

I bought this book because I am interested in Murano glass paperweights, many of which were made by Fratelli Toso, and this book has a chapter on paperweights. The problem is that this books is practically useless in identifying Fratelli Toso paperweights. The paperweight chapter has 17 pages with pictures of glass paperweight with little information about which ones are Fratelli Toso and which ones are not, other than the few with Fratelli Toso labels. The first two pages show catalog pages from an importing company from the 1960s. The best information offered, with no foundation or explanation, is that these paperweights are "mostly, perhaps all, by Fratelli Toso." Really? Is that the best you can offer? There were dozens of glass companies operating in Murano at the time. Why would the importer limit itself to one company? Most of the other pictures of paperweights in the book have no information - just a photo. Some say "probably by Fratelli Toso" but most say nothing. For most of the paperweights in this book, identification is apparently little more than a guess. The chapter on paperweights may as well be called "Paperweights that might have been made by Fratelli Toso." Maybe, maybe not. I returned my copy.