Situated to the south of Paris, Mennecy was no more than a village when in 1749 François Barbin and his wife bought a piece of land there in order to establish a porcelain factory. Barbin had spent many years trying to perfect his porcelain production. He was recorded in Paris conducting experiments in the rue de Charonne in the late 1720s and set up a small faïence and earthenware factory under the protection of the duc de Villeroy in the grounds of the château of Villeroy in the 1730s. In 1741 a new royal porcelain factory was established at Vincennes and given a monopoly to produce painted and gilded porcelain. Two royal decrees issued in 1748 and 1749 effectively put a stop to production at Villeroy, a development which prompted the Barbins' move to Mennecy. The new establishment still operated under the protection of the duc de Villeroy and many of the factory's products bear the impressed or painted mark 'DV' for Duché de Villeroy.

Barbin's son, Jean-Baptiste took over the direction of the factory in 1762, but unfortunately he died only a few weeks after his father in 1765, deeply in debt. Production continued however, as the factory was leased from Barbin's widow by Joseph Jullien and Symphorien Jacques of the nearby porcelain factory at Sceaux. After the lease expired in 1773 the factory closed and Jullien and Jacques transferred production to Bourg-la-Reine.

The porcelain made at Mennecy is soft-paste and lacks the hard white body of true porcelains made in Asia and at Meissen. The colouring is subtle and characterised by a good range of pink tones and other colours which were used to great effect in the flower painting found on many wares. As well as tea wares, a wide range of items was made by the factory. Snuff and patch boxes were a particular speciality, but also different types of table decorations. In the eighteenth century porcelain figures and vases replaced the earlier sugar sculptures as decorations on high class tables. This miniature vase would have been one in an arrangement filled with flowers, either fresh or also made of porcelain, ornamenting the centre of a dining table.