Soft-paste porcelain was first produced commercially in France in the 1690s at a faience factory in Saint-Cloud, a small town west of Paris. The factory began by copying porcelains imported from China, but it soon developed its own distinctive style, which was entirely French in character. Much of the factory's production concentrated upon wares decorated with complex patterns painted in a deep cobalt blue. However, in the 1720s it began experimenting with ground colors, notably green and yellow. The overglaze yellow ground, derived from Chinese ceramics, proved difficult to master technically, and surviving examples of it are rare.

This small jug, which probably dates to the early 1730s, displays the difficulties that the factory was still experiencing at that time with the yellow ground. The color is uneven in thickness and has bonded poorly to the porcelain body in numerous places. Despite its flaws, the jug must have been perceived as highly original when it was produced. The use of European flowers scattered on a Chinese-style yellow ground resulted in a type of decoration that was completely novel in Continental porcelain.