A pair of opalescent-glass art deco plafonniers by Ernst Marius Sabino: “Les Oursins”, designed with sea urchins and seaweed. France c.1930.

Diam.36cm/14ins.

Ernst-Marius Sabino

Sabino Glass Company

• Marius Sabino, founder of Sabino Glass company, was born in Sicily in 1878 and studied at L’Ecole Nationale des Arts Decoratifs and the Beaux Arts de Paris, where he became particularly interested in the challenges that the advent of electricity would have on glass manufacture.
• It was through electric lights that Sabino came to the production of glass. In fact, on his return from the first World War, he founded a factory which manufactured traditional lights fittings of wood or bronze and then quickly changed to glass.
• In 1925, Sabino designed opalescent glass with a blue hue and iridescent impressions, this had a higher arsenic content than most of his competitors.
• Early Sabino glass was marked either “Sabino France” or “Sabino Paris” if intended for sale within France. Some shades were not signed as they were sold to other makers for special orders or productions.