The Mystique of the Zanfirico Goblet

March 01, 2019

Video Translation: Hi, This is Jennifer with City Farmhouse Antiques and I am here with this week's Find of the Week. This week I have some very unique, ornate, and unusual pieces of hand blown art glass that look like they are straight from the island of Murano, but they are actually made by an American master art glassblower by the name of Charles Savoie. He is known for his Italian glass specifically his Zanfirico goblets, which is what this is. You can see the very fine detail in the latticino design, which is an Italian glass blowing technique that has a helical lace pattern. There are two different patterns within this piece. You can see this piece has multiple latticino or ribbon like patterns throughout. If you can imagine working with hot molten glass and working with the metals to perfect this latticino technique that is so finely detailed and lined I just can't imagine. This artist lives in Ripon, Wisconsin and he has studied under all the great glass blowers. This is another fabulous piece. The darker hot pink makes the latticino design a bit better to see. These pieces as goblets they really aren't practical as this piece is a 20 inch tall piece, but you can see with the multiple patterns of latticino going down the piece just how ornate they really are. Here is a double pattern where you can see the hot pink pattern and another latticino pattern going the other direction on these pieces. They are just incredible and how symmetrical they are is amazing how he could even do this as you work your way down and look closer at the piece. There are different colors of glass and here at the base you can really see the different lace like designs. Charles Savoie studied under a lot of great glassblowers, but he was mostly influenced by the Italian style techniques. He has taken some of the 17th century glass formulas and tweaked them a bit to come up with his own formulas. Here you can see another piece in a different color. So he has tweaked the formulas to use them to make his own techniques individual and unique. Here you can see this piece has a cobalt blue colored rim. You can see the latticino technique throughout there and you go down the stem and this piece is more of a green with black latticino throughout and a buttercream spiral piece of glass in the middle. At the bottom you can see all the techniques that come together with all the colors. These are his Zanfarico goblets that are not really for drinking with some of them being 24 inches tall, but you can use these for a tablescape or just display them together. People that love to collect art glass just collect it because it is so beautiful and they enjoy looking at all the pieces. He also has perfected the reticello technique which is one of the most difficult Italian glassblowing techniques to master where you can see how there is a mirrored image on the other side where he is actually using crisscrossed canes of hot molten glass and pulling them into each other to develop that mirrored look on either side. The technique and the attention to detail is just amazing on these pieces. Charles does a lot of commissioned work and ships glass all over the country. He studied under all the greats to include Dale Chihuly and he has perfected the art glass blowing technique to include making his own formulations from scratch with sands and metals perfecting both Italian and Bohemian techniques. So this is our find of the week these Zanfirico goblets made by Charles Savoie. Be sure and check us out on our website at www.cityfarmhouseantiques.com where we have more than just antiques and give us a like on Facebook.