Vase (Urne Duplessis)

This vase is one of the early forms created at what would become the French royal and then national porcelain factory, initially located at Vincennes, just east of Paris, and then relocated to Sèvres just west of Paris, where it still operates today. The form was designed by the factory’s first artistic director, Jean-Claude Duplessis, whose name was assigned to it. The realistically modeled, three-dimensional flowers that have been applied to the vase were an early specialty of the factory and were often the creation of women working there.

This vase was one of three examples of this form collected by William T. Walters before 1889 (see also WAM 48.670 and 48.671). They are visible in a photograph taken that year in the parlor of 5 West Mount Vernon Place, the Walters townhome in Baltimore.

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Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.

Acquired by William T. Walters, Baltimore, before 1889; inherited by Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1894; by bequest to Walters Art Museum, 1931.