Tulips, irises, poppies, carnations and other flowers in a glass vase with two butterflies on a stone ledge

Elliger undertook his artistic training with the Jesuit painter Daniel Seghers in Antwerp, whose tightly packed floral still lifes set within glass vases exerted a lasting influence on Elliger's own work. He moved to Amsterdam around 1660 and was resident in Hamburg in the mid-1660s, where he likely executed the present work. By 1670 he had taken up his post as court painter to the Great Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg in Berlin.

Fred Meijer has suggested that this painting is the pendant to the work offered Kunsthaus Lempertz, Cologne, 16 May 2015, lot 1092.