Tiffany Studios New York American "Lava" Vase

A Tiffany Studios New York American Art Nouveau "Lava" vase by Louis Comfort Tiffany. A visit to Mount Etna in Sicily during one of its eruptions is said to have inspired Tiffany to capture in glass the force and beauty of the molten volcanic flows and basaltic rock formations that he observed there. The free-form abstract drippings of gold molten glass and the speckled blue and gold ground recreate the naturalistic effects of flowing lava and make this vase an exceptional example of the form. Circa 1908.Provenance: The Garden Museum Collection, Matsue, Japan : Important Art Nouveau from the Private Collection of Lloyd & Barbara Macklowe at Sotheby's 1995This vase is pictured in: "A Selection of 300 Works From Louis C. Tiffany Garden Museum", by Takeo Horiuchi, Japan: Greco Corporation Fine Art Department, 2001, p. 250. A similar piece is also in the collection of the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, VA: "The Tiffany Collection of the Chrysler Museum at Norfolk", by Paul E. Doros, Richmond, VA: W. M. Brown & son, Inc., 1978, p. 70, plate 69. Also pictured in "Tiffany Favrile Glass and the Quest of Beauty", by Martin Eidelberg, page 29, plate 28.