Description

Murano Controlled Bubbles Red Sommerso Bowl

Sommerso means “submerged” in Italian, and that’s exactly the effect.

The glassmaker dips a coloured glass form into one or more layers of differently coloured or clear glass, so each colour sits inside the next like nested shells.

Hold a piece up to the light and look through the side rather than straight down, and you’ll see distinct colour bands rather than a single solid hue.

The technique took off in Murano through the 1950s and 60s, with workshops like Seguso Vetri d’Arte and Cenedese, and with Flavio Poli’s work for Seguso, often cited as the high point of the style. A typical sommerso piece pairs two colours, amber over smoke or red over clear are both common, though three-layer pieces exist and tend to command a higher price.