Sottsass Shiva Flower Vase

Last updated: 24 September 2026

What the Sottsass Shiva vase is

It is a flattened column of pink glazed ceramic, 23cm tall. Across its widest point it measures 17cm, and it is only 7cm front to back. The glaze is a hot pink rather than a pastel one. The form is a phallus. BD Barcelona says so plainly on its own product page, rather than leaving the buyer to notice.

So the shape is not a rude reading the object picked up later. It was the design from the start. After he finished the Shiva, Sottsass wrote that he kept making "small, small, small architectures". He described them as "a little like monuments, a little like tombs, a little like the abandoned temples of the gods". BD Barcelona now calls the Shiva "a symbol of Ettore Sottsass and an icon".

Ettore Sottsass, and what he was arguing against

Sottsass was born in Innsbruck in 1917 and died in Milan in 2007. From 1958 he spent nearly thirty years consulting for Olivetti's electronics division. There he cased the Elea 9003, Italy's first electronic computer, and won the 1959 Compasso d'Oro for it. In 1969 came the bright red plastic Valentine typewriter, which he called "a biro among typewriters".

None of that is the argument, though. The argument is his own sentence, and he repeated versions of it all his life. "When I was young, all we ever heard about was functionalism, functionalism, functionalism," he said. "It's not enough. Design should also be sensual and exciting."

The Shiva is that sentence in ceramic. It holds one flower badly, and it is not trying to hold flowers well. In 1980 Sottsass went on to form Memphis in Milan. It put bright colour, plastic laminate and suburban kitsch in front of the design press. That collective is what made him famous outside Italy.

Where the form comes from

Sottsass travelled in India through the 1960s, first in 1961. What he found there ran through the rest of his work.

The vase takes its name and its shape from the lingam. The lingam is the aniconic form through which Shiva is worshipped in Hindu practice. It is a devotional object, found in temples and shrines across India, and it has been for many centuries. Sottsass did not invent the resemblance. He made a run of ceramics out of what he had seen. One is a set of plates from 1964 titled Offerta a Shiva, and the M+ collection in Hong Kong holds one of them.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a Shiva vase. It describes his method as "adopting, but at the same time subverting, traditional forms". It also says he chose the hot pink to echo the bright colours of Indian clothing and architecture. A sacred object would not usually take that colour. That tension is in the object, and readers will land in different places on it.

BD Barcelona, and why a 1971 design is still made

BD Barcelona started in 1972, and by the company's own account it started in a nightclub. Young Barcelona architects and designers wanted to make their own work, and their friends' work, on their own terms. Sottsass was in that first catalogue, alongside Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Álvaro Siza.

So this is not a reproduction issued by a firm that bought the rights decades later. It is the same company, now under collective ownership, with founder Oscar Tusquets still involved. BD also sells a separate blue Capsule Global edition, limited to 999 pieces. The pink one is the standard production piece. So it carries no edition number, no signature and no certificate.

Size, material and what it actually holds

The 7cm depth is the number that matters. It means a single stem, or two if they are thin. This is not a vase for a bouquet and it will not take one. Buying it as a flower vase is buying the wrong object.

BD Barcelona publishes the dimensions and the material, but no water capacity. So there is no official figure to quote. The three museum records measure their own examples between 23.8cm and 24.1cm tall. Glazed ceramic shrinks a little in the kiln, so small differences are normal.

It chips like any glazed ceramic. On an object this size a chipped edge shows from across the room. If the plan is genuinely to grow something, our page on the Acorn Vase covers a far cheaper piece of glass. That one is built for a plant rather than for an argument.

What it costs and where to buy it

£237 including VAT, from Aram. A carton-sized item like this falls into Aram's £4.50 to £15 delivery band. Furniture sits in the £75 band instead.

What the money buys is a licensed production of a documented design. The company that makes it has made it since the 1970s. That is the whole difference between this and a lookalike, and it is most of the £237. No UK retailer other than Aram currently lists the piece. There is no cheaper version of the same thing to go and find.

Aram earns a line of its own here. Zeev Aram opened the shop in 1964 to bring modern design to Britain. It introduced Marcel Breuer, Achille Castiglioni, Shiro Kuramata and Eileen Gray to British buyers. Aram still holds the worldwide licence for Gray's designs. It stocks Cassina, Vitra, Flos, Carl Hansen & Son, USM and Artemide across four floors on Drury Lane. It is still family run.

Returns run to 14 calendar days, unused and in the original packaging, with the buyer paying return postage. Damage has to be reported within three days, by phone on 020 7557 7557. Signing up to Aram's newsletter takes 15% off, which is worth doing before checkout rather than after.

Buy the Shiva Flower Vase at Aram, £237

Living with it, honestly

Three things the product photography does not tell you.

Pink shows dust, and a glazed curve shows it more than a flat surface does. Ceramic chips, and this shape puts a rounded top and a narrow foot in the firing line. Then there is the third one, which is the real one. It is a phallus on a shelf. Not everyone wants that in the room where they have people round.

None of that is a reason not to buy it. It is a reason to decide where it goes before it arrives. Think harder than usual about who you are giving it to. A leaving present for a colleague is the wrong occasion. Someone who already owns design books is the right one.

People buy Philippe Starck's Juicy Salif for its argument rather than its job. It squeezes lemons badly, on purpose. The Shiva sits in the same category. If the Juicy Salif would sit happily on your worktop, this will sit happily on your shelf.

Sottsass Shiva vase FAQs

What is the Sottsass Shiva vase?

It is a 23cm vase in pink glazed ceramic, shaped as a phallus. Ettore Sottsass designed it and BD Barcelona Design makes it. The shape references the lingam, the form through which the Hindu god Shiva is worshipped. Sottsass encountered it on his travels in India.

Who designed it and when?

Ettore Sottsass, the Italian designer who founded Memphis. BD Barcelona dates the design to 1971 and Aram says original production began in 1973. MoMA, the Met and the Art Institute of Chicago all date their examples 1973.

How big is the Shiva vase?

17 x 7 x 23cm. So it is about the height of a hardback stood on its end, and narrower than a mug. The 7cm depth is the figure people misjudge, because product photographs give no sense of scale.

What is it made of?

Pink glazed ceramic, per BD Barcelona. Both MoMA and the Art Institute of Chicago record their examples as glazed earthenware.

Is the Shiva vase a limited edition?

No. The pink ceramic version is a standard production piece with no edition number, signature or certificate. BD Barcelona separately sells a blue Capsule Global edition limited to 999. The Capsule edition is a different product at a different price.

Where can you buy the Sottsass Shiva vase in the UK?

Aram, at 110 Drury Lane in Covent Garden, sells it for £237 and also ships. No other UK retailer lists it at the time of writing, so there is no price comparison to make.

Why does it cost £237?

Because it is a licensed production of a documented design, not a copy of the shape. The firm that makes it has made it since the 1970s. Ceramic production at this scale is also small-batch work rather than mass manufacture.

Is it an original or a reissue?

Neither word quite fits. It has never gone out of production. A Shiva bought today comes from the same maker as one bought in 1975. It is not a vintage piece and it is not a reissue by a different company.

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Prices, stock and delivery terms change. Everything here was checked on 5 September 2026. The figures come from Aram's own product page and BD Barcelona's record for the Shiva. The collection records are at MoMA, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.

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