Hanging Lights with Murano Glass Bowls by Gio Ponti, 1980

Three lights chandelier with Murano glass bowls from the 80s attributable to Toni Zuccheri x Venini. The transparent and black bowls supported by a surface with the hanging wires. In good condition with small wear and tear caused by years and use. Born in San Vito al Tagliamento (Pordenone), but Venetian by adoption, Toni Zuccheri (1936-2008) trained at the school of his father Luigi, an animal painter, then attending the University Institute of Architecture in Venice where he graduated in 1968. Still a student at the end of 1961 he arrives at Venini – replacing his father – for the design of a glass bestiary that Ludovico de Santillana wanted to realise by giving course to an idea of Paolo Venini, whom he had succeeded in the management of the company. Thus begins in an almost fortuitous way a collaboration destined to continue over time albeit in a discontinuous way. In an “initial” phase, even with the support of Ginette Gignous Venini, Paolo’s widow, Toni Zuccheri has the opportunity to familiarise himself with Murano glass, a matter that will fascinate him all his life. Artist of great curiosity and inventiveness, he dedicates himself with passion to research and experimentation, acquiring over time a considerable familiarity with both hot and cold working techniques, establishing profitable relationships with the various departments of glassware (furnace and moleria). Such glass series are born as those exhibited at the 1964 Venice Biennale, where a first reflection on transparency and colour is evident (Crepuscoli and Giade). Next to them are exposed the ducks in polychrome glass together with unpublished backyard animals of glass and bronze (turkey and pharaoh) shortly published on the pages of “Domus”, together with the famous uproat, with countless hot-cuted pens and sculptural valence. This same period is also marked by the collaboration between Gio Ponti and the glassworks, to which the Milanese architect had turned for the realisation of stained glass with thick slabs.