Glassmakers were active in Venice from the thirteenth century, prior to the zenith of Venetian glassmaking during the Italian Renaissance. Colored glass was first created in the fifteenth century, presumably in the glassworks of Angelo Barovier (active from 1424 to 1460). He is also considered the inventor of chalcedony glass (calcedonio), a marbled glass that imitates the precious stone chalcedony or its multicolored varieties (agate), as illustrated by this beaked ewer in blue, green, and yellow-brown shades, with an inner, cloudy surface that shimmers reddish. During the elaborate glassmaking process, different colored masses were skillfully kneaded together with tongs without mixing them completely – a secret Venetian glassmaking technique that was carefully guarded for a long time.
With its bell-shaped plate base, bulbous body, funnel-shaped neck with neck ring, curved handle and slender spout, the beaked ewer has a shape that is typical of this period (ca. 1500). However, there is only one known counterpart to the marbled Frankfurt glass jug, which is in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the Frankfurt ewer still showed fragile remnants of gold painting, namely floral ornamentation on the belly and unidentified lettering around the base, which wore off over time. The latter may have been an orientalizing decorative script, inspired by the transcultural exchange between the important trading city of Venice and the eastern Mediterranean region.