Potpourri Vase with Cover

c. 1860–80

Potpourri Vase with Cover, c. 1860–80. France. Blanc-de-chine porcelain; gilt bronze mount; overall: 26.5 x 21.2 cm (10 7/16 x 8 3/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.200.2 This vase was likely made by the celebrated Parisian ceramics firm of Edmé Samson (1810-91). To cater to the resurgence in taste for 18th-century designs, the Samson firm specialized in making reproductions of rare 18th-century European porcelains, especially those from firms that had already copied Chinese porcelains. In this case, this vase's design is taken from models produced by the St. Cloud factory in the 1750s after earlier Qing dynasty Chinese ceramics. However, the telltale sign that this vase is made by Samson and not St. Cloud is that the original would have been made from a soft-paste porcelain (fired at a lower temperature), while this example is made of hard-paste porcelain (fired at the highest temperature). Potpourri vases always have holes in the top to let the scent of dried spices and flowers contained within freshen the air around them.