This pair of vases is of the smallest size of vases à panneaux. The richness and quality of their gilding and finely executed painted decoration make these vases particularly handsome examples of the manufactory’s production in the early neoclassical idiom.

The style of painting suggests that the two vases were painted by Jean-Louis Morin (active 1754-87) in the late 1760s or early 1770s. The pattern of large gold pastilles, which may have been known in the eighteenth century as mouches d’or or pois d’or, found particular favour in the 1770s. Nine other vases in the Royal Collection are decorated in this way.

Of particular note are the detailed and superbly painted marine trophies on the backs of the vases. They include paddles, lobster pots, fishing nets, anchors, baskets, strings of pearls and reeds. The most likely candidate for the painting of the trophies is either Louis-Gabriel Chulot (active 1755-1800) or Charles Buteux l’aîné père (active 1756-82).

Text adapted from French Porcelain for English Palaces, Sèvres from the Royal Collection, London, 2009