Eugène-Victor Collinot, Yellow vase with swallows, circa 1870, earthenware and enamels, France

This monumental vase testifies to the permeability of ceramists in the second half of the 19th century to new influences from the Far East. The two partners behind this ornamental piece were Eugène-Victor Collinot (1824-1889) and Adalbert de Beaumont (1809-1869). The chemist and the orientalist collected and recreated an Orient as the West had dreamed it.

At each World’s Fair, Collinot & Cie asserted their quest for monumentality, pushing the material to the limits of its possibilities. The factory’s true consecration came at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1867, when Collinot was awarded a gold medal.

As the inventor of “enamels cloisonné et modelés en relief sur cookie de faïence, de porcelaine et autres surfaces”, a technique he patented in 1864, Collinot really stood out from his competitors.

One side of this vase features large floral motifs, while the other is simply decorated with two swallows.