I recently got an email from a reader who, while in Italy, had found an interesting Murano glass chandelier which she loved and wanted to purchase.
She didn’t buy the chandelier on the spot while in Venice because she wanted to check sizing.
When the time came to buy the chandelier, unfortunately, the reader found she had lost the business card with the name of the maker of the Murano glass chandelier on it. Problem.
Despite hunting around, the reader was unable to find the item she had set her heart upon. She wrote to Italy Chronicles in the hope this Italy-specific web publication might be able to help her track down her dream chandelier. Did it? Read on to find out.
Luckily, the reader who I shall refer to as Ms A., had taken a photograph of the Murano glass chandelier which had caught her eye. I asked for a copy of the image and was sent one. This is the photograph:
I tweeted the photo to a Murano glass manufacturers association I know but got no immediate reply. Now, I wondered, could a little web-based detective work help out reader Ms A? Sounded like a fun challenge to me and so I dug out my Sherlock Holmes hat and magnifying glass and off I went.
The Virtual Chandelier Hunt Begins
“What should I search for?”, I asked myself. I started with the word ‘heart’ in Italian and added Murano glass to the search phrase entered into Google’s image search section. While I did I find lots of Murano glass hearts, I found nothing like the ones in Ms A’s photograph. Ah, I thought, aside from the fetching nail varnished toes on the end of a pair of feet, I can see glass fish and what look like the ends of glass tubes. I started with the fish whose form I thought was rather unusual.
Fishing for a Chandelier
Searching for the Italian word for fish – ‘pesci’ – along with Murano glass, I soon discovered the world wide web is truly awash with Murano glass fish. I even found fish which looked similar to the ones you can just see in the reader’s photograph and hopped on over to the website where the fish where to be found. No joy, alas but little did I know just how warm I was – warmer than the Mediterranean in summer, one could say, though I did not know at the time.
Those Tubes Might Ring a Bell
Seeing as fishing for fish had failed to hook something, I searched for the unusual looking Murano glass tubes which can also be seen in the photograph – but only just.
Stop reading, start speaking
Stop translating in your head and start speaking Italian for real with the only audio course that prompt you to speak.
I searched for the Italian for glass – ‘vetro’ and for tubes – ‘tubi’ – Murano glass tubes are not common. I soon found some promising looking glass tubing, and my first click took me to a website with an article in Italian which was all about about said tubes. Mention was made of the Murano glass tube maker too. Back to useful Google.
As it happened, the name of the maker was also the same as the maker of the aforementioned, and searched for, fish. Interesting. But I couldn’t see the heart shaped pieces of Murano glass which had so besotted Ms A. At least not immediately. I noticed that there was one of those slide show presentation things on the home page of the website.
Something Familiar Slid into View
I decided to be patient and watch the presentation. Lo and behold, a photograph of what looked very much like Murano glass ‘hearts’ appeared before my very eyes. Here is the Murano glass slide show – wait for the ‘Sigma’ photograph – this one:
Except the hearts were actually hooks! Oddly enough, as my next move, I’d thought of Googling for the Italian for hooks, which is ‘ganci’ in Italian. Now I didn’t think I needed to.
I dashed off an email to Ms A for confirmation that I’d found what she had been hunting for. I had, and Ms A was over the moon!
With a little luck, the Simone Cenedese Murano glass maker will shortly make a sale. Well, a chandelier composed of these Murano Glass Sigma hooks is attractive. I can understand why Ms A was so keen to track one down.
As well as their original hooks and shapely fish, Simone Cenedese makes an extensive range of other rather attractive, and authentic, Murano Glass items.
If you happen to be in Venice and end up on a trip to Murano, you might want to drop in. If you do, try not to lose that business card and take a few photos too – just in case. Come to think of it, photographing the business card might not be such a bad idea.
Should the worst come to the worst, give Italy Chronicles a shout. If you have a photo, I might be able to help out!
