The @ Ravenna

Data: Height 15 cm, width 22cm. Signed; “Orrefors, Sweden, Ravenna Nr 166 Sven Palmqvist. A boat-shaped piece with a decor of what seems a mix of @'s and what we Swedes call "löpande hund"/(leaping dogs?). I believe this is a double Ravenna.

Exhibited: (i) Orrefors Showrooms in Malmö 1985 & (ii) Full page photo in “Svenskt Konstglas” 1991, page 96. 

Provenance: “The @ Ravenna” was acquired by the Detroit “Fisher Institute of Art” in 1951 but never arrived. Instead, it was somehow redirected to “Løfbergs Glas” in the city of Malmo in Sweden, where it was sold to a gentleman in the public.

The piece. This boat shape was common among the earliest Ravennas, and perhaps it is in these early boat shapes - often with semi-figurative motifs, a clear base, a matching rim, and a double layer of glass plates - that the Ravenna reaches its highest level. When I refer to the best Ravennas combining technique and artistry to attain world-class status in my book, this is the kind of object I mean. In later Ravennas, the colour powder was often overlooked or regarded as an unnecessary nuisance. However, in the early Ravennas, colour powder was an important ingredient, and this very early Ravenna illustrates this effectively. Having the rim in a colour different from the background, particularly one that matches the motif, was not unusual for the early Ravennas. We all know that Sven Palmqvist was a great technician - that he allegedly invented Ravenna, Kraka, Fuga, Selena, etc. - but few, if any, realised that, as this piece proves, he was contemplating inventing the internet.