Pair of Potpourri Vases with Covers (c. 1740–60): Art, History and Details

Pair of Potpourri Vases with Covers (c. 1740–60) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French).

The work and its context

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

As beautifully designed objects, the function of these vases is not immediately apparent. Created to contain potpourri, a mixture of flowers, herbs, and spices emitting ambient fragrance, their covers are decorated with delicate flowers spaced by small, unobtrusive perforations. The decoration continues onto the body of the container where intricate ribbing emulates a basket weave.

Object facts

• Title: Pair of Potpourri Vases with Covers
• Date: c. 1740–60
• Creator attribution: Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French)
• Culture: France, Saint Cloud, 18th century
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: soft-paste porcelain
• Dimensions: Overall: 15 cm (5 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Decorative Arts
• Department: Decorative Art and Design
• Accession number: 1962.360

A detail from the museum

The holes in the base of these vases may have held gilt-bronze flowering stems.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Dallot-Naudin, Yvonne, and Alain Jacob. Porcelaines tendres françaises: Rouen, L. Poterat, St-Cloud, Mennecy, Chantilly, Bourg la Reine, Vincennes. Paris: ABC Collection, 1983.
• Dupont, Patrick. Porcelaines franc̦aises aux XVIIIe et XIXe siècles. Paris: Les Éditions de l'Illustration, 1987.
• Rondot, Bertrand. Discovering the Secrets of Soft-Paste Porcelain at the Saint-Cloud Manufactory, Ca. 1690-1766. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.

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.