An Italian glassmaker that sculpts skull-shaped bottles for a vodka brand headed up by Blues Brothers star Dan Aykroyd has found private equity sponsorship. 

Bruni Glass has received an undisclosed investment from Axa Private Equity, the insurer taking a 70 per cent stake in the Milan-based business and Bruni's founders and management owning the remainder. 

The glass manufacturer has been making glass containers for spirits, food, pharmaceutical products and related accessories since 1974. 

In 2008, 1980s Hollywood favourite Aykroyd launched his Crystal Head Vodka in collaboration with artist John Alexander.

The quadruple-distilled spirit is triple-filtered through Herkimer diamond crystals and bottled in quirky glass skulls produced by Bruni and Stolzle Glass in the UK. 

Bruni president Gino Del Bon said the company's strengths were its “technological innovation and attention to design”.

The Italian business, which has 3,000 products in its portfolio, made sales of more than €108m in 2011, 60 per cent of which came from abroad. 

Picture: Source