Décor Cristallerie Blue Glass Bowl – Made in Italy, c.1960

Some bowls hold fruit. Some hold keys. This one holds the entire room hostage with its colour. This is a Décor Cristallerie blue glass bowl, made in Italy around 1960, and it is the kind of piece that makes you realise the Italians were simply not playing fair when it came to mid-century glassware.

The colour is a deep, saturated cobalt blue that shifts to a lighter, almost electric blue at the rim — where the glass thins out into a spectacular chain-link border of interlocking clear glass loops. It is the sort of decorative detail that looks impossibly delicate for pressed glass, and yet here it is, intact and perfect after more than sixty years. The interior is covered in a dense swirling rib pattern that catches the light from every angle, with a central starburst of elongated leaf-shaped facets spiralling outward from the base. In sunlight, it is frankly unreasonable.

The original gold foil label is still present on the base: "Made in Italy by Décor Cristallerie" — which is both a provenance and a flex. Use it as a fruit bowl, a centrepiece, a conversation starter, or simply as proof that 1960s Italian design was operating on a different level entirely.

Diameter: 25.5 cm
Height: 9 cm
Weight: 1,370 grams
Material: Blue pressed glass
Maker: Décor Cristallerie
Origin: Italy
Year: circa 1960
Condition: Very good vintage condition — original label present, no chips or cracks

WARNING: This bowl will immediately become the most photographed object in your home. Maison de L'oro accepts no responsibility for the number of times guests will pick it up to look at the chain-link rim, the subsequent Instagram posts, or the inevitable spiral into collecting Italian mid-century glass that will follow. The Italians knew exactly what they were doing. So do we.