In February 1581, the general assembly of the reformed churches of the Languedoc (southwest France) met to consider a peace treaty between French Catholics and Protestants signed in 1580. Antoine Sigalon, a maiolica potter and deacon in the reformed church of Nîmes, satirized Catholic liturgical vestments in the decoration of this flask. It was probably made as a gift to the powerful Protestant German prince Johann Casimir of Bavaria (1543–1592), who sent a personal ambassador to the Nîmes conference.

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