The mantelpiece that has held the same two things for years, and still looks right. Hand-painted in Jingdezhen — where the cobalt-on-white tradition has been kept by the same families for generations — each of these two vases carries a distinct classic form, linked by the same blue and the same unhurried brushwork. The gourd shape draws from Chinese feng shui; the cylinder from the Dutch Golden Age that borrowed it. Two pieces, one conversation. They work with flowers, or without.
