The scenes on this garniture were taken from three engravings after François Boucher. The shepherd and sheperdess on the central 'cuvette Mahon' are from Gabriel Huquier's Pastorale of 1736, while the source for the scene on the 'cuvette Courteille' on the left is the engraving titled Ismène et Daphnis by Jean-Henri Eberts. The scene on it's pair was taken from an engraving by Andrew Lawrence, an English artist working in Paris under the name André Laurent, who adapted Boucher's painting Le Pasteur galant for his print. The same print also provided the inspiration for figural groups made at Vincennes and Meissen. Pastoral scenes rendered in a similar style can be seen on a garniture of three vases ('cuvettes à tombeau') in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, by Etienne-Jean Chabry (museum nos. 1917.1047 and 1917.1049) and the scene after Lawrence's engraving is reproduced on a tray in the British Museum, London, also by Chabry (museum no. BM 1948, 1203.8). The 'cuvette Mahon' form, also sometimes described in the factory records as 'caisse à Mahon', was probably designed by Jean-Claude Duplessis père. It was introduced in 1756 and produced in three sizes. The flanking pair of flower vases were probably named after Jacques-Dominque de Courteille, who was presented with the first example in December 1753, not long after he was appointed commissaire du Roi, in 1752. The shape was produced in three sizes, the second and third sizes dating from 1759.