This beautiful pair of papier-mache vases is one of the most unique forms among the many objects produced in this medium. The imaginative decoration consists of a combination of hand painting and applied shell on a black lacquered field. One vase depicts a group of people standing in front of a Gothic ruin while the other features a fortified castle on a hill with a couple boating near a bridge in the foreground. The top of each vase reveals a gold painted chain border within a frame of pieced shell blocks.