These elegant vases are reminiscent of the French fashion adopted by marchands-merciers such as English dealer Edward Holmes Baldock (1777-1845). Baldock established his Hanway Street business around 1805, initially trading 'china and glass'. Throughout the first quarter of the 19th century he expanded his focus to include 18th century French and English objets de luxe and Chinese export porcelain.

Baldock was appointed 'purveyor of china' to William IV (1832-7) and subsequently to Queen Victoria (1838-45) and was responsible for the formation of many of the greatest 19th Century English collections of French furniture, including those of the Dukes of Buccleuch and Northumberland, the Earl of Lonsdale, William Beckford and George Byng (G. de Bellaigue, 'Edward Holmes Baldock - Part 1', The Connoisseur, August, 1975, p.292). Acting both as a manufacturer and retailer, Baldock's name appears as a buyer in many of the more spectacular public auctions of the 19th Century, and he specialized in selling not only the chefs-d'oeuvres of the Ancien Regime, but also in embellishing plainer examples of 18th Century ébénisterie and commissioning ormolu mounts in the Louis XV style to mount existing 18th Century Sèvres and Oriental porcelain.

These vases, with the stylized 'draco' finials on the handles are a design that have become closely associated with Baldock. A pair of Sèvres porcelain pots à oille du Roi of circa 1756-79, supplied by Baldock to Walter, 5th Duke of Buccleuch around 1830 with closely related 'draco' mounts, was sold anonymously at Christie's London, 9 December 1993, lot 17.

A pair of nearly identical crackle-glaze vases with dragon-form mounts were sold Christie's, London, 13 Sep 2007, lot 1263.