Pompadour Potpourri VasePompadour Potpourri Vase photographed at The California Palace of The Legion of Honor, now called the Legion of Honor. Pompadour Potpourri Vase photographed at The California Palace of The Legion of Honor, now called the Legion of Honor. I prefer the original name.

It is French soft-paste Sèvres porcelain 1770 and decorated by Jacque-Francois Micaud (1757-1810). It was purchased by the museum via a San Francisco Foundation Grant from the Michael Taylor Trust (1998).

Believe it or not, Sèvres Porcelain is still manufactured.

“Since 1740, the Manufacture de Sèvres has asserted its vocation, both heritage and experimental. The Manufacture {company} is a unique, lively laboratory and an important player in the artistic scene, design and decorative arts,” according to Sèvres Manufacture Musèe Nationaux. “It draws its strength from the excellence of the 120 ceramists who exercise and master around thirty trades but also from that of its materials (pastes, colors, emals, etc.) manufactured in situ according to preserved old techniques and which are today exceptional and privileged tools of contemporary artistic expression.”