Ercole Moretti history

In the exciting mood that accompanied the trade of glass beads in theese years began its activities in 1911 the Ercole Moretti, who after the closure of the Company Conterie, was the oldest among the manufacturers of Venetian beads. The first work of Ercole Moretti was the production of  Rosetta beads,  followed shortly after to Millefiori. The millefiori beads made by Moretti are absolutely unmistakable compared to those produced by other companies, both in the forms, both for the composition of murrine, and finally for the perfect finishing by grinding made with a thumbling process.

The Ercole Moretti has always preferred working with murrine, from its origins until today, but has left a sign also in other categories: grinded glass beads, submerged glass beads, those with avventurina, imitations of precious stones. In the nearly century-old history of the company were started also productions that had nothhing  to do with beads: vials for the medical industry around the Forties, buttons of glass in many models (1935-1945), flowers of glass, beads as imitation of natural pearls: The Moretti started this production, first of all in Italy, in 1937, resuming a tradition of great Czech success. The theese were formed by a ball of white glass which was covered with special paint effects . In 1968 started the production of murrine pendants and, in the nineties, one of millefiori plates and bowls.

The eclectic spirit of  Morettis brought them to introduce some important innovation in glass industy. Among all, we must remember at least two: the first was the use of copper tube instead of iron stick coated with clay for bead making. The copper is than removed with nitric acid. It was 1935. The system allows a more easy work and more thin and shining holes, wich suited to the knot between a pearl and the other. Of course in a short time all the producers of glass beads in  Venice  adopted the new system.

Another great little invention was that of copper ribbon used to produce a circle within which a complex composition of millefiori rod slices is assembled. Fusing the composition, we obtained a compact disc which was then grinded and polished. It was 1968. Theese were  the so-called Murrine, which created a rapid fashion.

The importance of the system consisted in the possibility of forming different types of objects, each of which would have perfectly identical copies of one another. If traditionally the production this company was woman's adornment, in the nineties we have added the production of the millefiori plates and bowls.

The Romans have left their amazing testimonies of bowls and plates made from the murrine. There are many examples in the most important museums in the world. When at the end of nineteenth Century Murano glass after decades of crisis, Vincenzo Moretti, glorious technician at the Compagnia Venezia Murano, imitated with extraordinary perfection, some of those items and others made it on his own imagination, contributing decisively to revival of the art of millefiori since then  no longer abandoned. Some of the holders of Ercole Moretti, the grandchildren of Vincenzo, initiated in the nineties the production of plates which of course could not have the preciousness of the nineteenth century, but which still re-working that preserved the charm of the things of the past.