Jean Claude Duplessis the elder (attrib. to)
French, active 1745/8­1774
Sèvres porcelain factory
Elephant Candelabrum Vase
1757
Soft-paste porcelain with enameling and gilding
ht.: 39.2 cm
Joseph Maier and Arthur Lewis Liebman Memorial,
gift of Kenneth J. Maier, M.D., 1986.3446

This porcelain vase was made in France; but where are elephants from? Its design was probably adapted from a Chinese vase of the Ming period (1366­1644). Notice the clever way in which the handles support the elephant trunks, which, in turn, support candleholders.

Porcelain, a fine, hard ceramic (fired clay), was invented in China in the ninth century. The thirteenth-century explorer Marco Polo used the Portuguese word porcelana, a term for shiny, brightly marked cowrie shells, to describe the ceramics he saw while in China.