What better material than Wedgwood's jasper to mask function with opulence. We doubtless do not fully realize the full import of potpourri in past eras. A vase like this adapted a practical necessity to the most elegant of settings.

A tall, swelling form in light blue jasper - almost twelve inches in height - is ringed with detailed floral garlands and swags, "suspended" from ornamental ram's heads. Classical female figures, framed by beadwork ovals fill the spaces defined by the garland. Additional classical ornament accents the foot and pierced outer lid. The non-decorative inner lid has remained with the vase.

The resulting effect is not one of neoclassical restraint, however. Rather, one notes an element of baroque exuberance.

The design of this potpourri vase dates as far back as the eighteenth century. An example in basalt from 1790 is documented in the German catalog, Wedgwood: Englische Keramik in Worlitz.(1995, p.136). The Beeson Collection at the Birmingham Museum of Art contains examples in brown stoneware and jasper from the nineteenth century. In addition it is included in the 1878 Illustrated Catalogue of Ornamental Shapes (Reilly. Wedgwood, Vol. II, p.541).