VASE PARSEVAL À BOUQUET DE FLEURS Manufacture de Vincennes, before 1753 Enamelled and gilded soft-paste porcelain A flower replaced by a soft-paste one from the manufacture deS èvres H. 27.5 cm Mark with the royal figure: LL interlaced, accompanied by a dot Provenance Former collection of Count Renaud Doria Private collection, Paris, 2012 This Parseval vase, whose shape evokes that of the Medici vase, is named after Philibert de Parseval, a shareholder of the Manufacture de Vincennes. The body is decorated with scattered flowers, roses, bellflowers, a sprig of lily of the valley and a stem of small pansies emerging from an iris painted in natural colours. Vases of this type can be found in the greatest museums in the world (London, New York, Sevres). They were used for dessert and to present fruit. Decorated with a rose bush, our example was created in a more decorative spirit, especially for the table or to decorate the mantle of a fireplace. The rosebush bears twelve flowers in enamelled porcelain, a feat made possible from 1745 onwards thanks to the exclusive privilege of making pieces in Vincennes "in the style of Meissen. Each flower is different. The petals, enhanced by a rich palette of pinks and purples, bloom in several corollas around a yellow and green heart. Our vase is one of the oldest known of its kind. Later, the pot will also be covered with flowers in relief as on the famous Le Boitteux vase (fig. 1). Further information given by the collector can be accessed by QR Code in the PDF.