Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. > Murano & Italy Glass

Italy Glassmakers - Not Murano or Empoli

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Officinaquack:
Hi, I would like to contribute to the forum.
I'll try to add some company who made and makes glassware in Italy. I'm speaking more to the machine made items...but I'll add some handmade facts.

It's a day by day post, details will placed based with my free time.
Hope to give an help to some collectors or glass lovers.


Bormioli Rocco
Basically the main and bigger Italian company for glassware.
Started as the legend say in 1825, when the Bormioli family moved from France to Italy.
At first in Altare (SV - Liguria) then fastly in Fidenza and at last in Parma.

The modern production is easy to find, thanks the Bormioli Rocco marks.
Until the end of the 80's and for years in 90's they marked also with Vitrosax , it was the Tempered glass brand and marks.

Basically it's a blown glass, pressed glass, and individual section technology.
In Parma untill the 2003 Bormioli made: clear glass, amber glass, green glass, turquoise and opal glass(milk glass). In another plant (Revere) there was also a spinning machine for some items.

For some canister or small container you can find also a n Exagonal mark with an inner BRF mark.
During the years Bormioli owned and bought different company and plants as: Covetro, Fidenza, Duralex, VDG Vereco, Ruhr Crystal Glas, Crivisa Cristaleria Spagnola and Colle a crystal company  in Tuscany.

Bormioli Luigi
During the 50's Bormioli company was working on different glass fields. Housewares, perfumery, pharmacy and food containers. Luigi Bormioli wanted to explore a higher range of quality for perfumery glass and built his own plant in Parma too. For some years the two company were still joined for the houseware products. Trade catalogue was a mix of soda-lime glass, blown or tempered pressed (Bormioli Rocco) and blown crystalline glass (Luigi's items...which mean no lead glass but with a high quality transparent and resonant).

In the first half of the 80's the two companies decided to split completely. Today they are a two different company without any relationship.

Basically the Luigi items are and were...Crystalline blown glass. Stemwares, tubmlers, decanter or jugs and some I.S. items too (which is the perfumery technology too). Thru the years they mixed also with some sourcing products from other companies.

Today Luigi Bormioli is a big player in the perfumery market and a upper quality company for stemwares and tumblers.

Is difficult to define a mark, usually items were not marked on the bottom but with a small sticker on the body with the brand of LIGHT&MUSIC or Luigi Bormioli (recent time). Stemwares today are lasered with the Luigi Bormioli brand.

Fidenza Vetraria
The main plant located in Fidenza near Parma started in the early30's even if the glass production was an early tradition.
Glass insulators (Folembray license), lighting (Holophane license) car lamps, glassware and even glass bricks.

For glassware It's a mix of pressed glass, blown glass, individual section and spinning machine.
In the early years you can find a Star with a SF inside as mark. Then the Fidenza mark or FI.VE. For some I.S. products during the 70's until the 80's.

It's easy to find Fidenza and Italy too on the bottom...but sometimes It's easy to make confusion with Borgonovo company...which is a completely different company.
In the end of the 80's Fidenza bought Saivo a company located in Florence.
Two years later Bormioli bought Fidenza, and today is the main plant for the company.

Co.Vetro
The Co.Vetro SpA was officially formed in 1976 in the town of Altare (near Savona), owned by the family Boccolini of Milan, which in 1960 had already undertaken, in the center of Altare, the decoration of glass items produced by Soc.Artistico-Vetraria (SAV) under the name of De.Valbor.
In 1988, employed about 400 employees and in 1992 the Co.Vetro was acquired by Bormioli Rocco.

Basically they produce pressed glass, but also I.S. canister and Jug and later machine blown items too.
Some early item are marked with the COVE mark, with a reversed C with an inner O.
Later you can find the Covetro sign for most of the pressed item and I.S.
Today is still a Bormioli Rocco plant.


S.A.I.V.O.
S.A.I.V.O. (INDUSTRIA VETRARIA FIORENTINA S.P.A.) started as public company in 1940.
After the Second World War the company broadened its production to include glass tiles (mosaics), ceramic enamel and tableware.

In 1989/1990, Fidenza Vetraria took the company, moving his glass bricks to Florence and bringing the glassware items to Fidenza in 1991.
S.A.I.V.O brand as glassware items was still on market when Bormioli Rocco took the company one year later.

The brand survived until the 1993 when it was merged with Fidenza catalogue and then both merged in 1998 with Bormioli Rocco catalogue and today some items are still on catalogue.
The main technology was a blown machine production for tumblers, stemwares, decanter, sundae or blown dessert bowl.

Some items during the 60's and 70's were branded with "Fort Bord" (I think a stronger resistance of the glass...dunno if tempered or annealed)
During the years S.A.I.V.O. owned also the Cristallo di Censo brand, a crystal glass hand made production (as far as I know until the 1985).

No marks on the bottom, so it's very difficult sometimes to recognise all the items.

Borgonovo
Vetreria di Borgonovo (near Piacenza) was founded in 1950.
At the beginning the company employed about 60 people and used a semi-automatic technology.
In 1956 they started the automation of the lines of production.

Today they produce a wide range of household articles, aiming principally the italian market but it's easy to find some product also in europe, Usa and more.

Basically they production is a soda lime glass, with pressed technology, individual section and some machine blown items too.
In the past they used also the spinning machine too.
Early items are marked with Italy, this sometimes for some kind of items generate some confusion with Fidenza vetraria items (for example Dessert bowls).

Today they marks the items with a B (not all the items)

Avir

RcR - Calp (today a mix of soda lime and crystal)

Ivo:
Thank you Gab - there are some new names there!
When you say turquoise and opal, is this solid opaque light blue or opalina (milk glass cased with light blue) ?

Officinaquack:
Hi Ivo,

No, the cased glass isn't a Bormioli glass.
Turquoise or Amber...or Opal.
Not cased.

Ivo:
I'd love to see an example of Bormioli turquoise glass - it might be the answer to several outstanding questions. If you ever come across a photograph, please post :-)

flying free:
Hello Gab
welcome to the board :)
Thank you for adding all this information.  It will be hugely useful and is very interesting.
Like Ivo, I'm really intrigued to see some of the uncased pieces as well if you have time and have some pictures.
Thanks again for taking the time to do this. 
m

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