We get this question every week: "How do you know it's real Murano?" The short answer is that you rarely can be 100% sure without paperwork. The long answer — which we use at the flea market — is a mix of craftsmanship, marks, and gut feeling after years of handling the glass.
The pontil mark on the bottom
Mouth-blown glass almost always has a small rough mark on the bottom where the pontil rod was attached while the glassblower shaped the top. On real Murano it's often ground smooth or covered by a small label. If the bottom is completely flat and machine-pressed, it's not Murano — it's factory glass.
Stickers and labels
Most Murano pieces from the 1950s-80s had a small sticker: "Vetro Artistico Murano", "Made in Murano Italy", or the maker's own logo (Vetri, Seguso, Mazzega, Venini). The stickers fall off over the years, so a piece without one isn't automatically fake — but a piece with the original label is gold.
Weight and thickness
Murano glass is usually heavier than ordinary factory glass. Pick it up. It should feel substantial, not flimsy. The walls are often uneven in thickness — that's a good sign, it means it was made by hand.
Bubbles and imperfections
Small air bubbles, slight asymmetry, a colour that isn't perfectly even — these are signs of handwork, not flaws. Machine glass is too perfect. If two "matching" pieces are exactly identical, it's probably not Murano.
The colours
Murano glassblowers have used mineral pigments for centuries to get those deep, glowing colours. Classics: bourbon red (gold), turquoise (copper), yellow (cadmium), pink (selenium). If the colours look like cheap plastic — neon pink, sharp lime — it's rarely Murano.
Last check: where did it come from?
At the flea market we always ask the seller. A piece from an Italian estate sale has very different odds from a piece in a "miscellaneous glass" box. It doesn't decide everything — we've found real Murano in the most random boxes — but provenance helps.
What we do at Farveladeland
We only buy when we're sure ourselves. When we're unsure, we say so. You should never pay Murano prices for something we don't believe in. And if you have a piece at home you're unsure about — drop by the showroom with it. We're happy to take a look.
