Christmas at Petersham Nurseries

Explore here
Petersham Nurseries

Financial Times

“The family interest in glass began with Francesco’s grandmother. He remembers her taking him on trips to the island of Murano from their hometown of Turin as a teenager – but confesses that he initially had no special interest in the craft. It was only in 2008, when he visited the island with daughter Lara, that things changed.
Over four trips, they bought hundreds of pieces – from wine glasses and tiny bud vases to giant urns and fabulously intricate paperweights.”

The cupboard under the stairs is typically a depository for shoes, coats and bags. In the Boglione family home (a 1690s hunting lodge in Richmond that backs onto Petersham Nurseries), it’s where they keep shelf upon shelf of precious Murano glass. Rows of waist-height pastel candlestick holders, candy-coloured urn-shaped vases and vessels with delicately arching necks sit regiment-like, waiting for an outing at society party (Savannah Miller’s recent wedding, for example) or a casual family dinner (“We tuck them into the middle of the table away from the children,” says matriarch Gael Boglione). Such is the family obsession with the glass that this is just a small shard of the collection.