Murrine production holds a distinctive place in the history of Fratelli Toso and follows its own system of design, numbering and cataloguing within the Archive.

The extraordinary scale of this production — hundreds of murrine patterns, used individually or combined in numerous ways and applied to thousands of objects — made a separate classification system necessary. Form and murrina belonged to two distinct yet interconnected systems: in production drawings, the shape of an object could simply be accompanied by the number of the murrina, or murrine, to be used.

At the heart of this system is the physical sample: the numbered glass tile. More than a simple colour sample, each tile records the structure, composition and proportions of a murrina, becoming a true production document through which a specific pattern could be identified, reproduced and referenced in the design of an object.

Drawings, tiles, catalogues, historical photographs and finished objects now allow these connections to be reconstructed, revealing murrina not simply as a decorative element, but as part of a true design and production system, central to the identity of Fratelli Toso.