Potpourri Vase with Cover

c. 1740–60

Potpourri Vase with Cover, c. 1740–60. Saint Cloud Porcelain Factory (French). Soft-paste porcelain; overall: 15 cm (5 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection 1962.360.1 These vases 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, as manufactories experimented with forms, surface ornamentations, and placement of perforations. Prior to Saint-Cloud's development of soft-paste porcelain in the 1690s, rumors spread throughout Europe that the prized material was made by burying a variety of materials, including lobster shells, in the ground for eighty years.