Collection de vases
Collection de vases is a set of engraved plates of covered urns and vases, published around 1770 by Pierre-Élisabeth de Fontanieu, a French collector, as a pattern book of decorative ornament. The plates show single vessels centred on a page with a thin framing rule, each with a lidded body, a footed stand and a square plinth. A designer could take the restrained neoclassical silhouettes, the swagged and garlanded bands, and the knob finials as reference for tableware, ceramic or metalwork shapes.
