A rock crystal vase is a vase made of rock crystal, a type of hardstone carving.
Some such vases were rare expensive items, decorated with gold and jewels, used by royalty in Europe.
A rock crystal vase that probably originated in the seventh century was given to William IX of Aquitaine (the Troubadour) by a Muslim ally. When Eleanor of Aquitaine, William IX's granddaughter, married King Louis VII of France in 1137, she gave him the rock crystal vase as a wedding present. The inscription on it says he, in turn, gave it to the Abbey of St.-Denis. It is now in the Louvre in Paris and is the only artifact of Eleanor's known to exist today.
Another was a crystal and gold posset set the Spanish Ambassador gave Mary I of England and Philip II of Spain as a betrothal gift. It was made by Benvenuto Cellini and the whole set is now on display at Hatfield House (England).
Famous quotes containing the words rock, crystal and/or vase:
“Under that rock that holds
the first swift kiss
of the spring-sun’s white, incandescent breath,
I’d seek
you flowers.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“I waited alone, in the company of orchids, roses and violets who—like people waiting beside you, but to whom you are unknown—maintained a silence which their individuality of living things rendered more imposing and in their chilly manner received the heat from an incandescent coal fire, preciously placed behind a crystal glass, in a white marble tub where it dropped, from time to time, its dangerous rubies.”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“Kitsch is the daily art of our time, as the vase or the hymn was for earlier generations. For the sensibility it has that arbitrariness and importance which works take on when they are no longer noticeable elements of the environment. In America kitsch is Nature. The Rocky Mountains have resembled fake art for a century.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)