Barovier Toso Caged Glass Pendant Light

A 1940s Italian pendant light built around a geometric brass cage that holds a single piece of hand-blown Murano glass. The cage is the structural and visual centrepiece, its straight brass bars framing the soft, organic form of the glass within. At 80 centimetres in drop and 40 across, it works as a single statement fixture rather than part of a cluster, and the warm brass tones the light as it passes through.

Barovier & Toso are one of the longest-running glassmaking families on Murano, with a documented lineage on the island going back to the 13th century. By the 1940s the studio was producing some of the most accomplished Italian lighting of the period, pairing their established mastery of hand-blown glass with metalwork that reflected the cleaner geometric vocabulary moving through Italian design. This pendant sits squarely within that body of work.

The glass element is hand-blown, with the small inclusions and surface variation that come from the Murano furnace tradition rather than any factory process. The brass cage is built from individually cut and joined bars rather than a single bent form, and the joinery is clean enough that the structure reads as a deliberate frame rather than a mount. Decades of natural patination have settled the brass into a warm honey tone with darker shading at the joins, set against the clarity of the glass.

Best positioned where it can be read from below, the centre of a dining table, an entry hall in a Queenslander, the kitchen island of a converted warehouse, or any contemporary interior leaning into Italian or Mediterranean influences. The geometric cage gives it enough graphic presence to anchor a room without overwhelming it. Brass and glass both retain their original character, with patination consistent with eighty years of careful ownership.

Origin: Italy
Period: 1940s
Materials: Brass and Murano glass
Dimensions: H: 80cm  x W: 40cm 
Condition: Very good vintage condition

Ships from Brisbane with secure Australia-wide delivery.