The vase has two ground colours and is richly gilded. The predominant ground colour is dark blue (bleu lapis) overlain by a repeating pattern of gold crosses (formed by five dots) within a circle of dots; the subsidiary colour is a plain apple green. It is supported on a plinth chased with a stylised foliate and gadrooned rim and raised on six dolphin feet, all of bronze chased and gilt. Painted on the front in polychrome is a putto seated on a cloud and partly draped with a fluttering swathe of pink drapery – in his right hand he holds a posy of flowers and in his left he clutches a cassolette; on the reverse, is a posy of flowers comprising a rose, an anemone and bell-shaped flowers – all allegorical of the sense of smell and, thus, appropriate to the pot-pourrie.

The slightly projecting broad green band round the base of the reservoir is decorated in the centre of the front and back with panels of gold circles. The moulded upper band in green and gold simulates water cascading over the rim of the basin. Prominent upright acanthus leaves, in green and gold on a blue ground, fill four of the concave panels of the pot-pourri section.

The concept behind the creation of this vase was sophisticated. When the reservoir was full of water and the four flowering hyacinth bulbs filled their allotted spaces the pot-pourri was dormant. Only when the seasons changed and the plants were replaced by blue porcelain flowers in tubs, would the pot-pourri vase have come into its own. Then the vessel would have been filled with sweet-scented essences, chosen to evoke the smell of particular flowers, giving the illusion that live plants continued to inhabit this vessel, distilling their scent even in winter months.

Text adapted from French Porcelain: In the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, London 2009