What is the oldest Murano glass company?

The oldest Murano glass company still linked with historic roots is Barovier & Toso. Murano glass records trace the Barovier family back to 1295, only four years after Venetian rulers ordered furnaces moved to Murano. The company formed through mergers across many centuries, though the Barovier name stayed active through each stage. Historians rank the family among the oldest surviving business dynasties in Europe. Barovier & Toso gained fame for chandeliers, artistic vases, and luxury lighting and during the Renaissance period, the family produced cristallo glass admired by royal households.

Wealthy clients from France, Austria, and Spain ordered Murano mirrors and goblets from Venetian traders. The firm survived plague outbreaks, wars, Napoleon’s occupation, and economic crashes. Few art workshops lasted through so many political shifts, as modern Murano factories still use furnaces plus hand shaping rather than full machine production. Barovier & Toso pieces appear in hotels, palaces, and museums around the world. Antique collectors search for early twentieth-century examples from the company, especially coloured art glass from the 1930s and 1940s.