Fratelli Toso Biography
Antica Vetreria Fratelli Toso is one of the oldest and most traditional artistic glass factories in Murano. In 1854 the Toso brothers, sons of Pietro, belonging to the so-called Cangioro branch of the family, started the business in the former Scuola Grande of San Giovanni dei Battuti. In that period of decline of the Republic (following the Napoleonic conquest and the transfer to Austria), the quality of glass production is rather low throughout the island of Murano, and most of the products are intended for domestic or pharmaceutical use . But the Tosos, thanks to the collaboration and help offered by Abbot Vincenzo Zanetti, a great promoter of glass art and founder in 1862 of a school of drawing applied to glass art, work hard to recover the techniques and know-how necessary to bring art back to the levels of the past: in 1864, in collaboration with the best masters of Murano, they created an enormous chandelier for the inauguration of the Murano Glass Museum (still preserved in the museum) for which they received the first gold medal, and become an active part in the rebirth of the art of Murano glass. A typical production of the glassworks between the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century were the murrine, so much so that the Tosos earned the nickname of murrinari in Murano. The company goes through periods of great creative innovation, thanks to the collaboration with excellent designers and artists such as the Norwegian Hans Stoltenberg Lerche, whose creations were successfully exhibited in 1912 and 1914 at the Biennale, or Umberto Bellotto, whose combinations of iron and glass were made for the first time in collaboration with Fratelli Toso, between 1910 and 1920; and again in 1936 under the artistic direction of Ermanno Toso, and finally in the sixties and seventies, with the works of Renato, Giusto and Rosanna Toso. Today the company is no longer in production, but manages the important Fratelli Toso collection, consisting only of unique pieces, working mainly in the field of antiques of art glass for private collectors, auction houses and museums all over the world .
