Today containers of tulips with pink and purple flowers including the cultivars including Tulipa ‘Blue Diamond’, Tulipa ‘Pink Sound’, Tulipa ‘Negrita Double’ and Tulipa ‘Ollioules’.
‘Self-Portrait as a Chimera’ Inkwell by Sarah Bernhardt. Made in Paris, ca. 1880, medium is bronze. Art Institute Chicago reference number: 2021.2
“French actor and artist Sarah Bernhardt was perhaps the first global superstar, with legions of admirers spread across Britain, continental Europe, North and South America, and as far afield as Australia. In this fantastical bronze inkwell, she portrayed herself as a chimera, a mythological creature composed of disparate body parts. Here, Bernhardt joined her human torso and head to clawed haunches, bat wings, and a dragon-like tail. The work is a key example of her inspired use of visual media to fashion and promote her own image.”
Perfect for a container in a shady place the perennial Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' (Siberian bugloss) provides large, heart-shaped silver leaves edged and veined with green. It produces sprays of small blue flowers in spring.
Crane and Tortoise Box. Japanese origin, dated 1894; medium is silver with gold and lacquer; dimensions: 10.5 cm high. From the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum collection, accession number: M18e44.a-b
"This crane and tortoise box was designed and produced to be given to guests at the imperial banquet for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of the Meiji Emperor and Empress in 1894. Often referred to by the French term “bonbonnière,” the box is decorated with a crane and two tortoises (minogame), historic motifs that convey messages of auspiciousness and longevity across East Asia. …"