This beautiful jardinière is crafted from Chinese cloisonné enamel and French ormolu, the ormolu wrought in a distinctive French Chinoiserie style to complement the enamel body.
The body of the jardinière features a rich blue enamel ground profusely decorated with traditional Chinese motifs, such as floral sprays, butterflies, and birds. Each decorative element, composed of green, blue, yellow, and red enamels, is contained by gold cloisonné wire; furthermore, cloisonné wire adorns the blue enamel ground of the body, forming an abstracted, geometrical background to the figurative elements above. The top of the shoulder of the body is decorated with a Chinese ruyi head frieze, while above, along the side of the narrow neck, a hybridised motif like the Greek key pattern forms a continuous frieze.
The enamel body of the jardinière is raised by an ormolu base, the ormolu pierced with decorative openwork and set on four monopodia, each monopodium terminating in the head of a mythical beast.
The rim of the body is set with a pierced decorative ormolu mount, while the sides are mounted with twin ormolu handles, each handle composed of an ornate and stylised Chinese dragon.