1994 Ettore Sottsass Yemen Murano glass vase

Ettore Sottsass, founder of the Memphis Group, built his Yemen vase for Venini in 1994 like a piece of architecture, stacking pure geometric forms one on top of another. Hand-blown in Murano, a glossy black sphere sits between a wide, coral-red cone and a translucent, smoky-green foot, each joined by a crisp ring of white. The result is bold, playful and unmistakably Sottsass.