Pair of Vases (vases Bolvry à perles or vases à cartels Bolvry)

These decorative vases would have sat on the mantelpiece to be admired rather than used. Elaborately decorated with gilding, pearl-like beads, and a delicate pink pointillé (dotted) ground, these vases are fine pieces of Sèvres porcelain, made at the height of the factory's popularity in the 1770s and 1780s. Copying paintings by the French artist Joseph Vernet, the porcelain painter Vincent Taillandier painted the maritime scenes in the reserves on the front and back.