id: 380117 accession number: 2020.200 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/2020.200 updated: 2023-03-22 03:05:28.706000 Pair of Potpourri Vases with Covers, c. 1860–80. France. Blanc-de-chine porcelain; gilt bronze mounts; each: 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift 2020.200 title: Pair of Potpourri Vases with Covers title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1860–80 creation date earliest: 1855 creation date latest: 1885 current location: creditline: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift copyright: --- culture: France technique: blanc-de-chine porcelain; gilt bronze mounts department: Decorative Art and Design collection: Decorative Arts type: Ceramic find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Each: 25.4 x 20.3 cm (10 x 8 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection opening date: 2022-09-11T04:00:00 Impressionism to Modernism: The Keithley Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 11, 2022-January 8, 2023). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * No exhibition history. --- PROVENANCE Levesque Père & Fils, Paris, France date: by 1996 footnotes: citations: (Levesque Père & Fils, Paris, France, sold to Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley) date: 1996 footnotes: citations: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH date: 1996–2020 footnotes: citations: Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley, Cleveland, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art date: 2020 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 2020– footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: Potpourri vases always have holes in the top to let the scent of dried spices and flowers contained within freshen the air around them. digital description: These vases were 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, these vases are designs taken from models produced by the St. Cloud factory in the 1750s after earlier Qing dynasty Chinese ceramics. However, the telltale sign that these vases are made by Samson and not St. Cloud is that the originals would have been made from a soft-paste porcelain (fired at a lower temperature), while these examples are made of hard-paste porcelain (fired at the highest temperature). wall description: 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 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. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.200/2020.200_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.200/2020.200_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2020.200/2020.200_full.tif