Vase (one of a pair) 1690 - 1705

Editor: We're looking at one of a pair of vases, made sometime between 1690 and 1705 by the Saint-Cloud factory. It's porcelain, with a delicate blue decoration on a white background, and currently residing at the Metropolitan Museum. It strikes me as incredibly ornate, even busy, with all those flourishes and figures packed onto its surface. What’s your read on this, seeing as the pair would have sat on a mantel, do you think they would have visually stood out amongst other décor in a period household? Curator: Oh, absolutely, I can just imagine these little fellas commanding attention, perched amongst velvet and gold! For me, these vases aren't just decoration; they are little stories being told. I see swirling Baroque exuberance, a dance between order and fancy. That blue decoration, like delicate lace, shows a real fascination with the then fashionable, and hugely valuable Chinese porcelain. Do you see how the dragons mimic those seen on works that would have been brought to France at the time? Editor: Yes, now that you mention it, those definitely echo Chinese motifs. Is that why they were so keen on this particular blue and white color scheme? Curator: Exactly! Porcelain, particularly blue and white porcelain from China, was the height of luxury in Europe then. Saint-Cloud, like other European factories, was trying to crack the code of making “true” hard-paste porcelain to imitate the imported wares. These vases are very much *of* that moment, trying to emulate something precious and rare but with its own decidedly French flair. Look at those playful grotesques— they feel much more French to my eye! What do you think? Editor: They're like whimsical gargoyles in vase form! It's fascinating how much history and cultural aspiration can be packed into such an object. I was just seeing a pretty vase, and now I see this tiny microcosm of 18th-century artistic ambition. Curator: Isn't it marvelous? It's like whispering to us from centuries past! And for me, I feel even more now that maybe it wasn't even a vase that someone put flowers in, but rather this attempt to emulate ceramic processes that would become an international success later.