Great Vase from the Galerie de Diane at Saint-Cloud

More than three metres high with its pedestal, this is one of the largest objects Sèvres ever produced. The vase itself, of deep beau bleu porcelain mounted in gilt bronze by Thomire, rises from a pedestal that is a monument in its own right. Four roebuck heads in bronze emerge from great acanthus leaves at the corners of the base; above them a frieze of biscuit porcelain figures represents the four elements, with Water, three bathing women, on the principal face. The main body is a square biscuit plaque within a frame of openwork bronze scrolls laid over blue porcelain, and the upper band mixes biscuit scrolls, bronze masks and medallions whose busts have disappeared.