Cleveland Museum of Art

Potpourri Vase

Saint Cloud Porcelain FactoryLinkedCulture matchlcp-f5b91483b17b

Date: mid-1700s
Medium: soft-paste porcelain
Culture: France, Saint Cloud, 18th century
Department: Decorative Art and Design
Institution: Cleveland Museum of Art
Object ID: 138447

A vase like this was 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.

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Credit line: The Norweb Collection

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