Louis Comfort Tiffany "Lava" Favrile Vase

Tiffany's "Lava" glass was inspired by a trip to the Eastern Mediterranean, during which Tiffany visited Mount Etna in Sicily. The transformation of glass into volcanic "Lava" was achieved in the following manner: lustered glass was gathered on a blow pipe, rolled with chemical particles, and then worked in flame. The heat from the fire generated a reaction in which miniature basaltic-type craters and pitting formed on the surface of the glass, which was then coated with metallic lustered glass to create the purplish-blue ground imitative of lava. Next, free-form trails of glass were applied, each piece worked in a reduction flame (one starved of oxygen), and finally sprayed with metallic oxide. When a silvered finish fully developed it was sprayed with tin oxide and, depending on the artists, finished in blue, mauve, or gold tones. The production of Lava glass was the most risky of any Tiffany technique because it incorporated metallic oxides with different coefficients of expansion. When these were blended together during numerous high-temperature firings they created hazards for the annealing process that often flawed the pieces in their final moment of creation. The powerful form of the vase and the clean articulation of the different metallic finishes make this piece incredibly rare.