Museo Galileo
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Crab-shaped "capriccio" glass
    • Setting:
      Room VIII
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Place:
      Tuscany
    • Date:
      17th cent.
    • Materials:
      transparent glass
    • Dimensions:
      height 273 mm
    • Inventory:
      103
    • Crab-shaped "capriccio" glass (Inv. 103)

Capriccio glass in the shape of a crab, whose nippers rest on a baluster stem with a round collar, supported by a three-pronged foot. The three prongs of the foot are, in turn, divided into three curl-shaped parts. There is an opening with a fringed rim on the round body and another aperture at the top. The object belongs to a category of glassware that, from the early seventeenth century, catered increasingly to the vogue for the fanciful and the bizarre.