Prices for Murano glass
 

I paid 200 Euros for a small (6 inches) traditional design Murano vase. Color ruby. Does this sound reasonable? Bought this at the factory showroom in Murano. I feel I was ripped off!

I won't say you were ripped off. But, you probably could have gotten cheaper on the mainland (i.e., right in Venice itself).

We were in Murano with friends and one of them fell in love with this huge glass tree with various hand blown glass birds. It was a unique piece and they wanted something like $10,000 for it. She actually considered it for a while and after we had a coffee, went back again, and they finally said she could have it for $9000 and they'd even ship it free! She was tempted, but we talked her out of it.<BR><BR>Almost a year later we were walking down a street in our own town of Naples, Florida (known for being upscale and expensive) and saw the same &quot;tree&quot; in a very expensive shop on Fifth Avenue. We had to go in. Although each piece is unique,this was about as identical to the one in Murano as you could get, and sure enough was signed by the same artist. The full price was $5500.

Hi hop<BR> There is glass and then there is glass. You have to shop around.<BR><BR> Unless you have seen the same vase somewhere else for less, you have probably gotten a great buy on genuine hand-blown Murano glass that you can brag about to your friends.

Is it signed? My glass from Murano was engraved by the aritsit with my name, the date purchased and has his signature. <BR><BR>I think that 200 would be reasonable if it was made by a &quot;master&quot; and signed.

Is it signed? My glass from Murano was engraved by the aritsit with my name, the date purchased and has his signature. <BR><BR>I think that 200 would be reasonable if it was made by a &quot;master&quot; and signed.<BR><BR>Also, I was told that the red color is caused by putting gold into the glass. This causes the red to be more expensive than the other colors. Does your glass have gold on it as a decoration? If so, it might be real gold.

Yes, it has a lot of solid gold decorations on it. It was made by a master. I have his name engraved, but not signature.

In my opinion, the Murano experience was a major ripoff, and left a bad taste in my mouth for the entire Venice visit. They fall over themselves giving you &quot;free boat rides&quot; to Murano, &quot;direct to the factory boatramp&quot;. They tried to sell us stuff in the factory showroom; when they saw we weren't buying, they escorted us to the downstairs showroom, less glamorous and cheaper. While my wife and I were looking around, my buddy went outside for a smoke and found the EXACT same stuff outside by the canal at substantially less cost (don't remember the exact figures).<BR><BR>The entire experience was very distasteful. Just my two cents ....

When it comes to buying, it's caveat emptor, and Venice is no exception, even more so perhaps because its only industry is tourism so there are a fair number of tourist traps I'm afraid.<BR><BR><BR>You just have to do some research if you are going to worry about if you got something authentic and if the price is fair. I collect Venetian glass in a small way, and the more I buy the more I know how silly some of my first purchases were.<BR><BR>While I was in Venice for the first time I asked my concierge which boat I should take to Murano and Torcello. He told me that at 9am a free water taxi would take interested hotel guests to Murano, where the glass factories are. Thankfully, I had read about these arrangements. A particular glass factory arranges with a hotel to pick up interested guests by private boat. When the boat lands on Murano the passengers are offered a free tour of the sponsoring factory, after which they are encouraged to order some glass items. This is not necessarily a bad arrangement, but it means you don’t get to shop around at the other factories unless you strike out on your own, which I did. <BR>When we arrived at the boat landing on Murano, I thanked the driver and went out to browse. Of course I had to make my own way back to Venice, but that was easy by vaporetto.<BR><BR>It turns out that much of the glass sold in Murano and Venice proper is mass-produced, and not all of it is even made on Murano, some of it comes from the Czech republic and elsewhere.. You end up seeing the same designs and little glass items (2&quot; animals, fish, beads, tiny bowls, etc) in many stores. Mostly they started to all look the same from shop to shop. Of course there were a couple of top-of-the line glass shops around San Marco (Venini, Pauly, etc).<BR>Even on Murano, there are many glass shops that just sell souvenirs that may or may not be made there. On Murano, authentic Venetian glass is shown in factory showrooms. The items in the shops may or may not be locally-made. After strolling the length of Glass Street (Fondamenta dei Vetrai) on Murano the first time, I ended up at a factory showroom, where I ordered some drinking glasses, vases, and other items to be made. Manufacture and shipping were to take almost three months. When they arrived I had to pay some additional Customs charges, but the items came precisely as ordered, and packed beautifully. The company I used then and since: Albarelli &amp; Nielsen, ponte Vivarini 143, 30141 Murano, Venezia. email [email protected]<BR>

Its a good thing I limited my purchases to 1 vase. With no knowledge of this whole setup, my losses could have been much more!

Hello, my one big purchase on my last trip to Venice was to be a lovely piece of Venician glass. I hadn't planned what that would be whether a vase or a plate or maybe even just a decorator piece.<BR><BR>Unfortunately upon arriving in Murano I could not find anything that I really liked or felt was worth the mega euros to pay for it. Yes, yes, I know they are works of art - but really!!<BR><BR>Fortunately I guess my husband and I totally disagreed anyway on what we liked - me the vases and statues and him the very ornate wine jugs and glasses but we did agree that the prices were way too expensive. Especially as we didn't have a &quot;spot&quot; to have a piece on permanent disply in our home. We opted to buy some original oil paintings instead - which ended up costing much less but are entirely Venice and some of the hand painted masks. All up much happier and we were able to carry them home quite easily rather than relying on having them shipped.<BR><BR>My aunt paid about E8000 for a glass statue which although extemely unusual I think the entire family have agreed is extremely ugly. But she likes it.