Lotton Glass Lava & Cypriot Study

Unlike the ever-popular Multi-Flora pieces, little mention of the Lava or Cypriot pieces is made in the Lotton book.  For clarification, Lava refers to the flowing of molten glass over a piece that’s already been formed.  Cypriot refers to a finish on the base glass that is often times used for Lava vases, as it looks very stone like—much like a volcano or volcanic material might.  Besides it’s appearance, another reason that the Cypriot finish is often chosen for the creation of Lava pieces is because of it’s rough texture, it helps to slow or control the flow of the molten glass on the piece as the glass flows into the little pores of the Cypriot finish.  However, not all Lava pieces are on a Cypriot base, and not all Cypriot bases have Lava flows on them either, as is evidenced in some of the photos on these Lava and Cypriot Study pages.

The piece to the left is what most people are talking about when they mention a Lava piece.  The Cypriot base (Charles calls this one “Sunkissed Cypriot”) is decorated with beautiful, heavy blue iridized lava flow.  This is a wonderful example, showing the heavy flow of Lava on all sides and the top, which is what collector’s look for in a Lava piece.  This piece stands 5” tall and resides in Warner and Kristina Smith’s collection.  This piece can also be found on page 64 of the Lotton book, item number 149.

Lava Study Page 1 - Lava Study Page 2 - Lava Study Page 3