Tulips have mesmerised people for centuries in different countries around the world and it was somehow normal and even inevitable that such a praised flower would inspire for the creation of a special vessel, designed to emphasise its beauty and uniqueness.

It is hard to think of a vase especially designed for one type of flower, but the tulip has even two vases for itself and they both come from two different countries, which adulated the flower for centuries.

The tulipière, literally translated from French as tulip-holder, is a Dutch vase made of hand-crafted pottery, usually white-blue delftware, since historically produced in the city of Delft. The design of the vase typically presents several spouts protruding from a central base, which serves as a water reservoir. The spouts are meant to accommodate one tulip each, this way every flower can be individually admired in all its beauty. It is curious that none of the Golden Age flower still lifes has ever depicted tulips in a tulipière, the reason for this fact is that the vase appeared around 50 years after the Dutch tulip mania was over and the Golden Age was drawing to its end.

Another vase created especially for the tulip is the Turkish laledan, drawing its name from “lale” the Turkish word for tulip. It is a vase with a narrow and long neck and a large body, designed to help maintaining the elongated stems of the tulip straight and, at the same time, well hydrated. Unlike the tulipière, designed to display more tulips at the same time, the laledan was used for holding one single tulip, presented and admired as a jewel in a precious frame.