how to clean stains inside an old vase?

Soak the interior with warm biological washing powder. The enzymes break down old organic residue. Never use bleach. It can seep into fine crazing lines and cause long-term damage.

My grandmother gave me a large vase covered in blue landscape scenes and I was wondering what the holes near the rim were used for?

Those holes indicate your piece originally had a fitted cover. Makers often pierced the neck of a vessel to allow a metal mount to secure the lid. Lids often break or get separated from their bases over the centuries. Many of these objects survive today as open vases despite starting life as covered jars.

can i put water in antique vases?

Hard-paste porcelain generally holds water well. The dense clay body is non-porous and resists leaking. Earthenware and soft-paste porcelain present more risk. Moisture can seep through crazed glazes and cause dark staining within the clay body itself. Slip a simple glass jar inside the antique vase to hold the water and protect the ceramic.

I have a pair of vases with blue patterns that look slightly blurred or smudged into the glaze instead of having crisp sharp lines, why is that?

This blurring is known as flow blue. Victorian potters intentionally added a chemical to the kiln during firing. This caused the cobalt pigment to spread slightly into the surrounding glaze. The resulting hazy effect became popular in the nineteenth century. It masked minor printing errors and gave the wares a distinct appearance.

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Antique Blue and White Vases from the 19th Century

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Antique blue and white vases are ceramic vessels decorated with cobalt oxide under a clear glaze, historically made to hold floral arrangements or stand as decorative objects in wealthy households.