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Glossary / Bench Equipment

Benches

Also called scagno (Murano), glassblower's chair

The glassblower's workstation: a seat between two long rails that the pipe rolls on while the glass is shaped.

What it is

The bench is the glassblower’s workstation, with a place to sit, room for the hand tools, and two rails that the pipe or punty rides on while the blower works.⁠⁠[1] Murano’s is the scagno, a backless wooden bench with a very wide seat and two long armrests, the bardelle, on which the master rolls the pipe; it’s wide because it has to hold all the hand tools.⁠⁠[2] Spiral Arts’ studio bench, for example, has 30.5” high rails 34” apart and a separate side table with hooks for tools.⁠⁠[4]

How it’s used

Seated, the glassblower rolls the pipe or punty back and forth along the rails while working the glass.⁠⁠[1]⁠[2]

History

The bench is younger than you might think. Corning’s study of Renaissance Venetian glassworking notes that a 1570 painting of the Medici glass workshop in Florence predates the glassblower’s bench by at least a hundred years: the glassblowers in it have a narrow board strapped to the right thigh, and roll the pipe or punty back and forth against that.⁠⁠[3]

Sources

  1. Wikipedia — Glassblowing, "Tools"
  2. Museo del Vetro, Murano — Glossary
  3. Corning Museum of Glass — The Techniques of Renaissance Venetian Glassworking, "A Look Inside a Renaissance Venetian Glasshouse"
  4. Spiral Arts — Bench and Side Table

Benches in the archive 1

Photo Tool Maker Sellers
Bench and Side TableA glassblowing bench with a separate side tool table, in powder-coated steel tube with maple seat and table. Spiral Arts 1