Exceptional Italian lead crystal punch bowl. The shape is linear and simple, it has a lid with an opening to house the long crystal ladle and a silver-plated cast metal knob depicting the pomegranate fruit. This particular object was created between 1965 and 1968 by a Florentine craftsman who used a lead crystal mold from Colle di Val D'Elsa (Siena-Italy) and limited himself to applying only the silver metal knob , cast and chiseled finish. The bowl alone expresses its great beauty with its brightness, transparency and brilliance. The high refractive index was enhanced by the Master Craftsmen of Colle Val D'Elsa following ancient and complex glassmaking techniques in the processing of crystal: first, once it came out of the oven in its final shape, the object was cut and ground on a lathe with a grinding wheel fed continuously by a jet of abrasive sand and water, then repolished with a very fine-grained sandstone wheel also fed with water, then polished using a cork bark wheel wetted with a mixture of water and pumice, this was to make the surfaces more transparent, and finally the polishing phase, which was obtained with a felt wheel wetted with a mixture of water, iron oxide and cerium oxide. Crystal craftsmanship originates in the beautiful medieval Tuscan village of Colle Val D'Elsa (Italy) around 1300 from the fortunate abundance of three natural elements present in the area: sand, water and wood, fundamental for giving birth to the first glass. With the new power of machines, the glass industry took off with great momentum in the 19th century. In 1963, after large investments and many experiments in Colle Val d'Elsa, it was possible to produce glass containing lead oxide in percentages higher than 24 percent: it was a product that could compete in brilliance and achromaticity with that coming from England, France, and Belgium where the tradition of lead glass was centuries old. The numbers of Colle di Val d'Elsa are mind-boggling: 95% of the national crystal production and 15% of the world's production are produced here. One of the country's nicknames is Boemia d'Italia. The bowl is in excellent condition.
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SILVER Seller in Prato, Italy
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