Flat-based, cylindrical jars of Chinese porcelain with French gilt-bronze mounts, formed by a ring of bamboo stems with leafy shoots, set in a gilt-bronze, rustic, spirally reeded base, tied with leafy stems of acanthus with berries. Affixed to each top rim is a high loop handle in the form of two entwined leafy stems, fixed by screws to a leafy spray attachment at each side on the top rim of the jar.

Turquoise glazes, Islamic in origin, are found in Chinese pottery from the Song period (960–1279) onwards. Used later on porcelain, they were, as a rule, applied to a biscuit fired body and baked at medium temperatures. These wares were especially admired in France in the eighteenth century when the glaze was known as bleu celeste, and were favoured by Queen Marie Antoinette.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen, Volume II.