Located in Tuscany, Empoli was settled during the early Roman Empire as an agricultural centre. Situated on the Arno river, it was ideally placed to become the area’s transportation hub.
Glassmaking in the area dates back to the 14th century and received a significant boost in the mid-18th century after Domenico Lorenzo Levantini began producing majolica and glass near Porta Pisana (the factory remained active until 1984). From the 19th onwards the area’s production involved a number of significant manufacturers including Vetreria Toso Bagnoli, Clave, Vetreria Etrusca, Vetrerie Empolesi and Vetrerie E. Taddel & Co.
For several centuries the trademark of Empoli glass was its transparent light green colour, often referred to as Empoli verde (Empoli green) with the colour resulting from the iron oxide that occurred locally in the sands of the region and was used as raw material. Empoli verde was widely used for giftware, glasses and wine glasses, as well as what have become the classic green flasks with their straw covered bases. Production also included tools for winemaking and the bottling of wine and oil, as well as bottles and objects for the table.
Empoli glassmakers decorated flasks and other objects using a group of cottage artisans known as the fiascaie, comprising thousands of women working from home to produce art glass, glass dinnerware and decorative objects. The area is also recognised for the production of colourful cased glass known as lattimo: cased glass with an inner layer of opaque glass. The firms of Stelvia, Cive, Savia, Cristalleria Arno and Cristalleria Fratelli Betti were principal manufacturers of this type of glass.
Empoli glass is generally far simpler in its style than other Italian glass, lacking the intricately applied trim or internal decorations associated with Venetian and Murano pieces. Its simple, traditional style leant it to the abstract shapes of mid-20th century modernism and the thin-walled, brightly coloured glass – blue and yellow were developed alongside the green – became hugely popular in the United States in particular. Although the majority of the mid-century styled Empoli glass was made for export to the American market, it was also sold through department stores in the United Kingdom and Australia. Often marked only with a generic ‘Made in Italy’ paper or foil label that usually fell off or was removed, when found today it is largely unmarked although some of the known importers/exporters of Empoli glass whose names can be seen on paper or foil labels when still intact on pieces include Rossini, Guildcraft and Alrose.
It was a Boston-based importer who was largely responsible for bringing Empoli glass to the United States. After travelling to the area in the 1920s and observing the utilitarian glasswares being produced, he decided to hire Venetian glassmakers to train the Empoli glass blowers, with an eye on the production of Venetian-style glass but at a much reduced cost. The experiment was a failure but the importation of Empoli glass was not, and a resurgent interest in the Venetian style is evident in the final productive period of Empoli glass in the 1960s and ‘70s, which also included crystal to accommodate the changing fashions.
This was the era in which glass production in the region reached its historical high, with the area supporting 38 glass factories and more than 3,500 workers. Add to this the hundreds of small processing firms involved in activities such as decorating and grinding, and around 10,000 people were under the employment of the glass industry in a region with 60,000 inhabitants.
One of today’s most collectable items produced in Empoli is the Genie bottle. Originally sold containing wine or bubble bath as well as an empty decorative item, in thw 1960s and ‘70s the Genie bottles were marketed at 99c each. They are usually (although not always) marked in raised lettering to the base with ‘Made in Italy’. As they were mostly machine-made using moulds, they will often contain obvious seams, air bubbles and other flaws, all of which are seen as part of their charm by today’s collectors.
