Monumental Charles Lotton Cypriot Lava Vase

The vessel has a sheered rim with tightly coiled corners and a slight outward flare that reveals an iridescent pink interior. The exterior has silvery blue “lava” draping applied over ruby, orange and purple “crush”, being further enhanced with gold flecks. This example measures 9 1/4 inches tall and 11 1/8 inches across the rim. It is engraved “Charles Lotton, 2006, Lava Cypriot” and weighs in at 10 pounds.

Cypriote glass got its name from a collection of ancient glass housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and donated by General Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832-1904). This glass was excavated from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and had a distinctive appearance consisting of natural iridescence and an irregularly pockmarked surface, produced by centuries of decay of these buried objects.

The Stourbridge Glass Company, England, created its interpretation of these objects, known today as “Cypriote” as early as 1896. The pitted surface was imitated by marvering broken bits of glass into the gather.

Louis Comfort Tiffany also had an affinity for this ancient glass and added another step in the glassmaking process, probably involving the use of potassium nitrate, which also created a cratered surface.

The Lotton process appears to more closely mirror the Stourbridge process in that the examples I have examined usually do not have cratering or pockmarks but instead marver colored bits of glass/frit into the vessel to mimic the irregular surface found in the ancient glass from Cyprus. Charles Lotton spells his Cypriot Glass without the final “e” and refers to frit as crush.

Rainier cherries for scale . . . and snack!