This Sèvres porcelain vase and its pair were bought by the sister of King Louis XV of France, Madame Adélaïde, in 1772. It is extraordinary to imagine them in the sumptuous Palace of Versailles in the apartments the French princess shared with her other unmarried sisters, perhaps reflected in a mirror behind a pier table or on a maneltpiece. In the Sèvres factory archives today the original ledger recording her purchase survives, revealing she paid 420 livres for them in December 1772. She was a good customer of the factory and even had a vase shape named after her (perhaps because she commissioned it), a pair of which can be seen at Harewood House in West Yorkshire today. An inkstand with her initials and her father's portrait is in the Wallace Collection and was probably a gift from Louis XV to his favorite daughter in 1756.

The vases are in the elegant, but rather austere, neo-classical style which is characterised by simple shapes and bold motifs taken from classical architecture and decorative art. The male and female heads in the medallions are painted 'en grisaille', as the grey tones imitate carved marble reliefs found on roundels on ancient Roman buildings or tombs. Only three pairs of this model appear to have been made, suggesting it did not find favour with most aristocratic buyers of porcelain, the shape being perhaps too severe.