# Elephant Candelabrum Vase (Vase à Tête d'Eléphant)

- By: Manufacture nationale de Sèvres (Design attributed to Jean-Claude Duplessis (French, c. 1695–1774); Painted by Pierre-Louis-Philippe Armand (French,…)
- Date: 1757–58
- Medium: Soft-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, and gilding
- Classification: Ceramics
- Dimensions: 38.5 × 25 × 14.7 cm (15 1/8 × 9 13/16 × 5 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Sèvres
- Credit line: Joseph Maier and Arthur Lewis Liebman Memorial: Gift of Kenneth J. Maier, M.D.
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/108575)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/45798c4c-2359-d9b9-a298-1b24de6ea498/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

This model is one of the more exotic forms created by Jean-Claude Duplessis. The elephants’ trunks originally supported double candle sockets that are now missing. The idea of combining elephant heads with a vase may have derived from a Ming dynasty Chinese vase or a Meissen candelabrum. The Sèvres painter Pierre-Louis-Philippe Armand accentuated the sensuous qualities of the elephants by framing their brown eyes with pink lids and long eyelashes.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0