The celebrated ceramic artist Marc Louis Solon came to England in late 1870 following the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The Minton factory had, under the directorship of Léon Arnoux, acquired a reputation for attracting the most skilled craftsmen from leading porcelain factories on the Continent. Solon enjoyed a long and successful association with the Minton factory, producing some of the manufactory's most memorable pieces, including numerous works displayed at the great expositions of the late 19th century. As U.S. Commissioner Blake observed in his Reports of the United States Commissioners to the House of Representatives following the 1878 Paris Exposition Universelle, three years prior to the present vases' completion, Solon's "work is incomparably superior to that of any of his imitators, far surpassing in art value the best examples of figure subjects from the kilns of Sèvres. He alone fully and satisfactorily unites skill in the technique of paste and glaze and the genius of sculptor and designer. His favourite subjects, as is well known, are the female form, Cupids and cherubs. He delights in illustrating the pranks Cupid plays with the hearts of maidens."

The present vase was decorated in Solon's final year of employment by Minton. After 34 years with the firm, he retired in September of 1904, although Minton would continue to provide him with slabs to decorate at his home, where he amassed a celebrated collection of ceramics and a library of over 4,000 books on pottery, from which he published his 1910 bibliography, The Ceramic Literature. For a discussion of Solon's activities in retirement, see J. Jones, Minton: The First 200 Years of Design and Production, Shrewsbury, 1993, p. 207. For an exhaustive discussion of Solon's work at Minton, see B. Bumpus, Pâte-sur-Pâte, London, 1992, pp. 100-151.