LOVER’S EYES VASE

In 1785, when Maria Anne Fitzherbert opened a love letter from Prince George of Wales, she found a miniature painting of the prince’s own eye staring back at her — a rare and extraordinary gesture of devotion. Eye miniatures, known as lover’s eyes, became one of the most intimate traditions in British history: small, precious, personal objects exchanged between lovers as tokens of affection, meant to be worn close to the body or held in the palm of a hand. They flourished for half a century and then vanished.

The LOVER’S EYES VASE is the contemporary heir to that tradition — a piece designed by Susana Rodriguez that brings the lover’s eye motif into a functional, collectible object made from Lladró’s finest glazed porcelain. It has the quality of a talisman. It seems, as Lladró puts it, to look back at you.

A Vase That Holds Your Gaze

The body of the vase is thrown in an amphora profile — a wide, generous vessel form with vertical ribbing that catches the light at different angles across the Saxony blue glaze. The neck gathers inward and opens again at the rim, where a row of individually applied ceramic beads in deep blue creates a textured crown. At the centre of the body sits the eye medallion itself: a white porcelain oval, bordered by a scalloped outer ring and ringed with concentric rows of raised gold beads in diminishing scale. At the very heart of that composition, the eye — etched in fine detail, the iris rendered in gold luster, the pupil and lashes worked with jeweller’s precision. The gold luster finish applied across the beadwork, the medallion rings, and the eye itself ensures the piece catches light from across a room. No two viewings of this vase produce the same result.

Specifications

• Designer: Susana Rodriguez
• Sculptor: Dept. Diseño y Decoración
• Collection: Lover’s Eyes
• Material: Glazed porcelain
• Finish: Gloss and gold luster
• Color: Saxony blue, white, and gold
• Height: 15.354 in
• Width: 8.268 in
• Depth: 8.661 in
• Weight: 8.71 lb
• Origin: Handcrafted in Spain by Lladró

Functional, Hypnotic, and Built to Last

This vase sculpture is fully functional — it holds water and flowers — but its primary role in most homes will be as an object of focus. At over 15 inches tall and nearly 9 inches wide, it has the presence to stand alone on a console, sideboard, or shelf without the support of other objects. One of the Saxony blue glaze art sculptures for sale is rich enough to be absorbed from a distance and detailed enough to reward close inspection. As a gift for someone who appreciates the weight of a beautiful story behind a beautiful object, it belongs in a category of its own.