MURANO GLASS ANIMAL SCULPTURES

Glass is the only material that can hold light inside an animal. That is why Murano has been sculpting them for six hundred years — horses and bulls for the palaces, doves for the weddings, fish and dolphins because the city itself was built in water.

Every piece here is shaped free-hand at the furnace from a single gather of molten glass, without moulds and without seams. The master has roughly ninety seconds while the glass is still workable: the trunk is raised, the neck drawn out, the tail arched. Which is why no two are ever quite alike — and why the small differences are the proof, not the flaw.

From a twelve-centimetre polar bear to a forty-seven-centimetre prancing horse, in clear crystal, colour, or real gold leaf fused into the surface. Every piece arrives with a certificate of authenticity and fully insured worldwide shipping. Looking for something smaller? See our millefiori miniature animals.