This semitransparent, milky pink vase with green and black veins and patches was produced in a single copy. The shape of the vase is reminiscent of an Eastern censer. Its neck is encircled by an exquisite silver mount in the form of a prickly branch with small buds created by Lucien Falize.
This vase with a depiction of an orchid and its companion piece were presented to Nicholas II and Alexandra Fiodorovna during their visit to Paris in 1896 as heads of an official delegation. In the Winter Palace they were kept in the Silver, or Louis XVI, Drawing-Room.
The vases were created a number of years before they were given to the imperial couple and were not originally intended as a diplomatic gift. The pair are considered a programmatic work by the artist and the method of decoration is an illustration of Gallé's scientific researches in the filed of evolution. Reproduced with documentary precision on the vases are two different species of orchids. Gallé's scientific interest in this plant family that occurs so frequently in his work was prompted, at least in part by a work of Charles Darwin (of whom he was a follower): On the Various Contrivances by Which British and Foreign Orchids Are Fertilised by Insects, and On the Good Effects of Intercrossing. The Hermitage vase bears a depiction of orchids that are reckoned to come from the Philippines. Around the turn of the 20th century they were among the most popular hot-house flowers in Europe.