Two songbirds are captured mid-flight. Their postures and the action of their wings are frozen in an effect that brings to mind modern stop-action photography. The spontaneous, unconventional depiction of the birds, reveals lessons that European designers like Bracquemond, Coleman, Leonce, and Mallet learned from Japanese masters like Hokusai.

The only other element of the composition is a shattered piece of bamboo entwined with a delicate blossoming vine. The choice of bamboo, along with its dramatic diagonal placement, reveal additional Japanese influences.

The Vieillard Grands Oiseaux series follows Bracquemond's pioneering adaptations of the Hokusai Manga studies in the placement of the image on an uninterrupted white field. (Note examples of  Bracquemond's Service Rousseau available on this website.)  The Vieillard designs differ, however, in offering a single unified composition per plate, rather than Bracquemond's scattered images. 

The study is executed in fine transfer printed outlines and the thick relief enamels (emaux en relief) introduced into French ceramics by Theodore Deck. A simple reddish brown pinstripe finishes the edge.

The Vieillard faience works in Bordeaux were a continuation of the pottery founded by immigrant Irishman David Johnston who introduced English style earthenware and transfer printing to France in the mid 1830's. Jules Vieillard took over operations in 1845 and in 1865 turned the pottery over to his sons who continued under the same name until 1895. It was under the leadership of Charles and Albert that the pottery introduced a series of  highly original, often brilliant, designs in the Japanese taste.

The Grands Oiseaux designs were created by architect Eugene Millet, a student of Viollet-le-Duc, best known for his ecclesiastical work and restoration of such monuments as the Chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.