Armando Jacobino (1822–1970). Italian-born master glassblower and designer Armando Jacobino brought the expressive traditions of Murano glassmaking into the heart of Finnish glass design. Born in Naples and trained in the Venetian glassmaking tradition from a young age, he moved to Finland in the 1950s and worked as a glassblower at Nuutajärvi before briefly establishing his own glass workshop in Jokela. In 1959, Jacobino joined the Kumela glassworks in Riihimäki, where he remained until his death in 1970. A master of free-blowing and hot-working glass, he created both elegantly curved vessels and lively sculptural figures shaped directly from molten glass. He became especially known for his playful cats, rabbits, swans, ducks and horses, bringing a distinctly Italian sense of movement and spontaneity to Finnish glassmaking. Combining the roles of craftsman, artist and designer, Jacobino occupies a unique place in Finnish design history, and his signed Kumela works remain distinctive and increasingly sought-after examples of 1960s Finnish art glass.

(Photo source: UA Saarinen, Press Photo Archive JOKA, Finnish Heritage Agency)