This large and impressive pair, each formed of two smaller Japanese porcelain vases joined by European gilt-bronze, illustrate the Marchand-Mercier's practice of design through assembly of a variety of luxury objects, a practice discussed in depth by C. Sargentson in Merchants and Luxury Markets: The Marchands Merciers of Eighteenth-Century Paris, London, 1996. The privilege to keep such a range of material, not to mention the compounded right to assemble them in such a whimsical manner, was one of the prerogatives granted to the mercers' guild in their corporate statutes.