Potpourri vase (one of a pair) 1760 - 1765

Curator: Here we have a piece titled "Potpourri vase (one of a pair)", crafted between 1760 and 1765 by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory. It resides here with us at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: My first thought? Delicate and precious, a sugary confection spun from porcelain, almost too pristine to touch. It’s got this quiet presence, demanding respect. Curator: I see what you mean. These Rococo pieces are often trying to achieve that level of artifice, aren’t they? This vase would have contained dried flowers and spices; think of it, releasing a fragrant cloud in some opulent drawing room. Editor: Speaking of opulent, notice the piercing? Those aren't just decorative; they allow the potpourri's scent to gently escape. Plus, I am thinking of the making and the production that made this Rococo item: each applied flower, each delicate curve, the careful molding, must've taken an enormous amount of skilled labor! Curator: Absolutely! There's such an attention to detail, and also there's a lot of hidden meaning behind its symbols. Editor: Hidden meaning indeed! The roses, tulips, even those tiny fruit...symbols of fertility, beauty, transient delights and love, perfect little gifts of pleasure for a bored aristocracy, all masking that brutal extraction and manufacturing behind their frivolous joy. Curator: Don’t you think that it embodies an era's obsession with ornamentation, almost verging on decadence? I cannot help but be moved by this. Editor: I see how those qualities can draw you in, the almost performative nature of beauty on display. It's really something to consider this object existing in such a context of extreme resource use. Curator: Yes. I love imagining it there, in a salon overflowing with similarly crafted artifice. Makes it glow even now. Editor: For me, seeing it divorced from that former life almost throws its purpose into starker relief; a quiet material witness to social extravagance.