This practical flower vase was made in two parts, the upper part could be filled with earth and used for growing bulbs as their roots could grow down through the holes in its base and take up water poured into the pierced lower section. When bulbs were out of season, it could be used for fresh flowers or for porcelain flowers mounted on painted metal stems, thousands of which were made by the factory. This shape was one of a range made at Vincennes/Sèvres known as 'hollandois' (Dutch) as they were no doubt inspired by contemporary Dutch bulb pots made in tin-glazed earthenware. They were usually made in matching pairs and often combined with other related shapes with the same decorative scheme, to form a set or 'garniture', the central vase being taller and wider. The model was first introduced in 1758 (this example is the fifth and smallest size) and was so popular it was still being made in 1780s. It is interesting that the decoration of a peasant couple on one side of the vase is also Dutch as it is copied from an engraving by Le Bas after the 17th century artist David Teniers. It is perhaps ironic that these genre scenes of rustic types were highly sought after in refined court circles in the 18th century and later.

Rosalind Savill (see below) discusses bulb vases of this type in detail in her Wallace Collection catalogue of Sèvres porcelain. She cites an entry in the factory Sales Records for a pair of vases hollandois nouveaux of unknown size, with rose and green ground colours and Teniers scenes, priced at 360 livres each, with a larger flower trough, a vase à compartiments, at 432 livres. It was Pierre Verlet of the Louvre who first realised these matched the description of the set presented to the contrôleur général Henry Léonard Jean-Baptiste Bertin, King Louis XV's minister responsible for the Sèvres factory. A vase à compartiments with the same decorative scheme is in the Wallace Collection, C226 (date letter G for 1760). While it is not known if the Wallace Collection's and the V & A's vases are the actual ones from the set given to Bertin, it is certainly a possibility.

The different elements of this vase, its undulating form, the pink and green ground colours, the enamelled decoration of a courting couple and flowers on the reverse, together epitomise the rich, decorative Rococo style of the Louis XV period in eighteenth century France.

Savill, Rosalind. The Wallace Collection: Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, 3 vols. London: Trustees of the Wallace Collection, 1988. See Volume 1, C232-3, pp. 109-119.