This form was first introduced at Sèvres in 1771 and produced in three sizes. The manufactory titled it bouc du Barry (billy goat of du Barry), in regards to Louis XV's maîtresse-en-titre, Madame du Barry (1743–1793) though the rationale for the connection is still unclear. The plaster model can still be found at Sèvres.

The decoration on the present vases is almost certainly emblematic of War and Peace - the vase illustrated on the right representing War with two little boys sitting in front of a tent preparing their weapons for battle, threatening thunder clouds in the distance; the vase on the left representing Peace with a little girl emblematic of France wearing a blue hat decorated with three fleurs-de-lys and a red plume tapping drumsticks against the stretched skin of a military drum, a little boy relaxing beneath a tree and playing a pipe, a gilt medallion within crossed palm fronds also decorated with three fleurs-de-lys leaning up against the base of the tree trunk, yellow and pink clouds scudding across a sunny sky in the background.

The miniatures are similar in style to the figure painting of Charles-Nicolas Dodin. Unfortunately, no entry corresponding to the present pair of vases is found in the reprint of the artist's payment records or to kiln records linked to his name listed at the back of last year's exhibition of Dodin's work held at the château de Versailles. Cf. Marie-Laure de Rochebrune, Charles Nicholas Dodin et la manufacture Vincennes-Sèvres - Splendeur de la peinture sur porcelaine au XVIIIe siècle, Exhibition Catalogue, château de Versailles, 15 May - 9 September 2012, pp. 225-232.

The more likely possibility is that the scenes on the present vases are by Charles-Eloi Asselin, a painter at the manufactory specializing in figures from 1765 to 1800. For a vase à tête de bouc painted with a similarly styled putto in a military encampment, the painting attributed to Asselin, see G. de Bellaige, French Porcleain in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, London, 2009, pp. 288-289, no. 61. Also compare the pair of vases with military putti, their painting attributed to Asselin, in the Wallace Collection (R. Savill, The Wallace Collection, Catalogue of Sèvres Porcelain, vol. I, London, 1988, pp. 384-388).