Pot-pourri vase and cover

For many admirers of Sèvres porcelain, the pot-pourri à vaisseau represents the height of sophistication and a remarkable combination at the factory of the technical mastery of the repareurs and the skill of the painters and gilders. The vase, the largest of the three models of this shape produced at Sèvres, is decorated with two ground colours, green and dark blue. Boat-shaped with out-turned feet with either end tapering in the form of a stump of bowsprit emerging from the jaws of marine monsters. The lid is formed by pierced rigging encircled by a fluttering white pennant decorated with gilded fleur-de-lis. The front reserve depicts a polychrome genre tavern scene taken from an unknown source and inspired by David Teniers the Younger (1610-90). The reverse reserve depicts a posy of flowers.