Rock Crystal Salt & Pepper Shakers

11 x 7 cm (4.33 x 2.76 in)

Giberto Arrivabene Valenti Gonzaga grew up in Palazzo Papadopoli on the Grand Canal, under ceilings painted by Tiepolo. Around twenty years ago he started designing glasses for friends and family, and when the requests kept coming, he and his wife, Bianca, founded Giberto Venezia in 2005. The family still lives on the palazzo’s upper floors, above the Aman Venice hotel that now occupies the rest of it and houses the brand’s flagship.

Every piece starts as a watercolor on tracing paper, usually prompted by a moment: tea in a Marrakech souk, a friend’s yacht, the lagoon turning from grey to green one spring afternoon. Giberto isn’t a glassblower himself. He takes the sketches to the furnaces of Murano and works them out with masters like Gianni Seguso, using techniques such as rigà menà, incalmo and avventurina. Velvet comes from the wooden looms at Tessitura Luigi Bevilacqua, and rock crystal from Madagascar. Many pieces are engraved by hand on the island. His daughter Mafalda now leads collaborations, and the house has a boutique on the Rialto Bridge.