Labino Glass Art Piece
Location 166
Owner: Tom and Betsy Brady
This elegant glass decanter is one of Dominick Labino's early blown glass art objects created in 1968 at his home glass-blowing workshop in Grand Rapids, OH and given to Tom and Betsy Brady as a wedding gift by Otto Wittmann, then Director of the Toledo Museum of Art and a close personal friend of Betsy's parents, Sam and Alice Carson, who were long time patrons of the museum. Nick Labino developed his glass-forming skills while working in the glass industry in Toledo, first at Owens-Illinois and then at Owens-Corning, and had become friends with Tom's father, Edwin Brady, who at that time was Chief Ceramic Engineer at the Surface Combustion Corporation also located in Toledo. Surface Combustions's business was designing and manufacturing high temperature heat treating ovens for companies around the world and Tom's father, Ed, helpd Nick Labino design the glass melting over that Nick Labino had installed in his home shop where this glass decanter was made. Thus, this glass decanter has a very special history for Tom and Betsy Brady because it was created by world famous glass artist Nick Labino, who employed a glass melting furnace that Tom's father helped design.