Jessica Vincent was scanning the crowded shelves of a Goodwill store outside Richmond, Virginia, when a colorful glass vase caught her attention. It had a bottle-like shape, felt surprisingly heavy, and carried sweeping bands of aqua green and amethyst purple that looked more like painted brushstrokes than ordinary decoration.

The vase was unusual, affordable and marked at just $3.99. Vincent bought it because she thought it would look good in her home, not because she expected to uncover a major piece of Italian design.

Then she examined the bottom more closely. A small “M” suggested Murano, while the faint markings eventually connected the object to Venini, one of the island’s celebrated glassmakers.

The vase was identified as a rare Pennellate vase designed by Carlo Scarpa for Venini in 1942. Six months after leaving the Goodwill shelf, it sold at Wright auction house for $107,100.

The Vase on the Goodwill Shelf

Vincent found the vase during a June 2023 visit to Goodwill with her partner after a day spent training horses. Surrounded by measuring cups, candles and inexpensive household decorations, the glass object stood out because of its weight, shape and unusual ribbons of color.

She had spent years visiting thrift stores and yard sales and had developed an interest in objects that looked older or better made than the items around them. Still, there was nothing on the price tag to suggest that this particular vase had any significant history.

The piece stood about 13.5 inches tall. Its body was made from clear glass decorated with irregular trails of opaque color, producing a loose, painterly effect. Unlike a surface-painted vase, the colored elements were incorporated while the glass was being formed.

Vincent paid $3.99 and took it home. At that point, the vase was simply an attractive thrift-store purchase. Its previous ownership and the route that brought it to a Virginia Goodwill remain unknown.

A Goodwill representative later said donated merchandise often arrives with little or no background information. The vase may have been placed on the shelf only days before Vincent noticed it, but there was no documented way to trace who had donated it or where it had been kept.

The Small Mark That Started the Search

The first important clue was underneath the vase.

Vincent noticed a small “M” and suspected it might refer to Murano, the Venetian island internationally associated with handmade glass. After adjusting the vase and studying the faint base markings, she could also make out references to “Murano” and “Italia.”

That clue did not immediately reveal the designer, but it changed the direction of her search. Instead of treating the vase as an anonymous decorative object, Vincent began researching it as a possible piece of Italian art glass.

The complete mark proved more informative than the single visible letter. Wright’s auction catalog described a three-line acid stamp on the underside reading “Venini Murano Italia.” It connected the vase to Venini, the historic glass company that produced innovative designs by some of the most influential figures in 20th-century Italian decorative art.

Vincent posted photographs in online groups devoted to art glass and Murano collecting. Members recognized that the colors, form and Venini association resembled work from Carlo Scarpa’s Pennellate series. One person reportedly offered her $10,000, but she chose not to accept a private offer before obtaining a professional opinion.

The small mark had not provided the entire answer by itself. Instead, it gave her the first verifiable connection: this was not simply a vase decorated in an Italian style. It appeared to be a genuine Venini object produced on Murano.

How Experts Connected It to Carlo Scarpa

Vincent contacted Wright, the auction house known for modern design and important Italian glass. Richard Wright recognized the vase’s likely identity from the photographs and arranged for specialists to examine it in person.

Wright’s final catalog identified the object as Carlo Scarpa’s rare Pennellate vase, model 3664, produced by Venini in 1942. The catalog also recorded the acid-stamped signature and listed Vincent as the vase’s provenance before the auction.

Carlo Scarpa was an Italian architect and designer whose collaboration with Venini produced experimental forms and glassmaking techniques during the 1930s and 1940s. The Pennellate series took its name from the Italian word for brushstrokes.

To create the effect, a master glassblower applied colored opaque glass while the transparent vessel was being blown and continuously rotated. The process required the maker to keep the form balanced while arranging delicate trails of color across its surface. The difficulty of coordinating those steps helps explain why relatively few Pennellate pieces were produced.

The specialists also examined the vase’s condition, proportions, color combination, construction and factory mark. Wright knew of only one other example with the same form and colors, held in a private collection. The Goodwill vase had survived without the kind of chip that could have sharply reduced its value.

What began with a small “M” had become a documented chain of identification: Murano led to Venini, Venini led to Scarpa, and the vase’s form and technique placed it within the rare Pennellate series.

YOUTUBE EMBED — PRIMARY SEARCH QUERY: “Jessica Vincent Carlo Scarpa Goodwill vase auction”

The Auction That Passed Six Figures

Wright placed the vase in its Important Italian Glass auction held on December 13, 2023. It was offered as lot 106 with an estimate of $30,000 to $50,000.

That estimate was already an extraordinary increase over the $3.99 Goodwill price, but the bidding moved well beyond it. The hammer price reached $85,000, meaning that was the winning bid before the buyer’s premium was added. With the premium included, the published total sale price was $107,100.

This distinction matters because auction reports sometimes use “sold for” without explaining whether the number represents the hammer price or the buyer’s complete invoice. In this case, $85,000 was the hammer result, while $107,100 was the total reported price paid by the buyer.

The vase went to a private European collector who chose to remain anonymous. Associated Press reporting said Wright would receive approximately $23,600 from the transaction and Vincent would receive about $83,500. She planned to use part of the money to install a proper heating and cooling system in an old farmhouse she had recently purchased.

The sale transformed an inexpensive household decoration into a six-figure auction result, but it did so through documented attribution rather than guesswork. The mark, online research, expert inspection, rarity and excellent condition all contributed to the final value.

YOUTUBE EMBED — SECONDARY SEARCH QUERY: “Wright auction Carlo Scarpa Pennellate vase”

What Made the Pennellate Design So Rare

The vase’s price was not based only on Carlo Scarpa’s name. Collectors were responding to a rare combination of designer, manufacturer, technique, condition and specific model.

Scarpa’s Pennellate designs required an unusually difficult collaboration between the designer’s concept and the glassblower’s physical control. Opaque trails had to be added while the glass remained hot and mobile. The maker needed to rotate the vessel continuously so that its shape did not collapse while still placing the colored material with enough lightness to resemble spontaneous brushwork.

The Goodwill example also had a particularly scarce form and color combination. Wright described it as one of the rarest pieces the auction house had offered in more than a decade of sales and knew of only one comparable example in a private collection.

Its condition was equally important. Fine glass is vulnerable to chips, cracks and surface damage, especially after decades of ordinary household handling. Richard Wright explained that even a small chip could have reduced the vase’s value to below $10,000. Instead, the piece reached the auction house in remarkably strong condition.

The answer to the Reel’s central question therefore began with the small mark but did not end there. The “M” pointed Vincent toward Murano. The complete acid stamp identified Venini. The vase’s form, construction and brushstroke-like glass decoration connected it to Carlo Scarpa’s 1942 Pennellate series. Specialists then confirmed that the object matched an exceptionally rare model.

A vase purchased for $3.99 ultimately sold for $107,100 because Jessica Vincent noticed a maker’s clue that others had passed by. The mark was tiny, but it opened the path from a dusty thrift-store shelf to one of the most important Italian glass discoveries to appear at auction that year.