Wright Auction

Toni Zuccheri began designing glass for Venini in the 1960s. The son of a painter of animals, Zuccheri inherited his father’s love of nature and the natural world and he would go on to create vessels and sculptures unlike anything seen before. His elaborate glass birds, wildlife, and plant forms are recognized as high design, but his impact on Venini and on the world of glassmaking is perhaps underappreciated. Zuccheri’s devotion to nature was profound and his use of glass as a medium to express this connection seems to have broadened the potential of the material itself. His vases and sculptures perfectly express Zuccheri’s unique understanding of glass as a tool for sculpture— his chosen forms make the most of opacity, denying all of the usual properties of glass, save its plasticity. Zuccheri’s alluring tree trunk vases, with gold leaf and attached bronze bees, take glassmaking to new heights and exemplify the artist’s passion for nature above all else. In addition to Venini, Zuccheri would design decorative works and sculptures for Barovier & Toso, VeArt, and other esteemed firms.