Cover for a Potpourri Vase (1860–80): Art, History and Details

Cover for a Potpourri Vase (1860–80) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This cover is part of a pair of covered vases that were created to contain potpourri, a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices emitting ambient fragrance. This specific function offered a particularly fertile ground for the development of French porcelain from the mid-1700s, as manufactories experimented with forms, surface ornamentations, and placement of perforations. Produced by the firm of Edmé Samson in the 1800s, the vases pay homage to this history. While using updated technique and material, as well as more exuberant decorations, these vases draw upon designs by earlier innovators such as the Saint-Cloud manufactory.

Object facts

• Title: Cover for a Potpourri Vase
• Date: 1860–80
• Culture: France
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: blanc-de-chine porcelain; gilt bronze mount
• Dimensions: Overall: 7.1 x 10.2 cm (2 13/16 x 4 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 2020.200.2.b

A detail from the museum

Potpourri vases always have holes in the top to let the scent of dried spices and flowers contained within freshen the air around them.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.