Set of 8 wine and 8 water/long drink glasses in crystalline from the ‘’Glass Family’’ series by Alessi Italy. The set was designed by Jasper Morrison in 2008. Sizes: Wine glass: cl 20- h cm 13,2 Water/long drink glass: cl 32 - h cm 8,2 Dishwasher safe This ‘’Glass Family’’ set of 16 glasses are in a new and unused condition delivered in their original package that protects the glasses well. This range of glasses were conceived for everyday use, while having a discreet and sophisticated design, as if they were new and exclusive glasses for a restaurant. This range also reveals intense study of detailing, giving remarkable consistency in terms of shape and solidity to a form that is only apparently simple. For example, its characteristic design features include variations in wall thickness, decreasing towards the rim. This has two consequences: an increase in weight at the base, giving the glass greater stability, and a pleasantly thin rim in contact with the lips. The glasses are neither cylindrical nor conical, but have a slightly convex profile which generates unusual light reflections, giving an apparently simple form an appearance that is in no way banal. When this form is gripped, the physical sensations that it produces are very different from the flatness of a cylindrical or conical shape. Jasper himself has said: “I like the idea of a democratic wine and long drink glass which is slightly more formal than the others, to be used to give the table an easy aspect of a 'dinner' rather than just dinner”. I would like to add that his quest for anti-glamour “normality” paradoxically gives his designs an air of sophisticated simplicity, which is a good description of one of the ambitions of the Alessi brand. Alberto Alessi stated the following about this set of glasses: ‘’This is all you need to make a good everyday table setting”. I have always admired Jasper for the coherence and modesty that he applies to his role as a designer, well aware, for example, of the fact that, in traditional household typologies, design evolution has nearly always developed by means of short steps. By this I mean small modifications in shape or function which, over generations of designers (nearly always anonymous) working at different moments in the history of mankind, have led to the standard form/function as we know it today. “Glass Family” gives me great pleasure to use the term “entry level”, which I consider a kind of title of ‘merit’. It is true that we avoid anything that should cause a compromise in the quality of design of the glasses. We feel that this design neatly expresses the contribution that Alessi has made to truly democratic design.‘’ Jasper Morrison: Born in London in 1959, he studied design at Royal College of Art and at the HdK in Berlin. Editor of the Design Year Book 1999 with a passion for the history of design, he designs for Cappellini, Vitra, Magis, Flos, Rosenthal and Sony. Morrison was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to design.