A Venetian or façon de Venise filigree wine glass, late 16th century


Each part of the vessel internally-decorated with strands of fine filigree ribbon set into clear glass, with a conical bowl over a flattened knop between collars, on a spreading foot folded at the rim, 16.8cm high
|This shape of wine glass was made in various sizes and with many different forms of vetro a retorti. A related glass with a wavy rim, with identical filigree decoration to the present lot, is in the Felix Slade collection in the British Museum, illustrated by Hugh Tait, The Golden Age of Venetian Glass (1979), fig.100.