The Shiva Vase exemplifies the playful and iconoclastic nature of Ettore Sottsass’s work. Although the piece is domestic in scale, like the vases of his Ruins series, he referred to it as one of his “small, small architectures,” which he likened to ancient monuments and abandoned temples. The Shiva Vase also alludes to lingam shrines to the Hindu god that he encountered on repeated trips to India, beginning in 1961.