Antique Floor Vases
A vase too tall for a table, made to stand on the floor of a hall or reception room, holding branches and dried arrangements or simply standing as decoration.
Antique Floor Vases
Height is the defining attribute. Two thirds of titles on Sellingantiques use the word "large", and stated dimensions run from around 47cm up to 147cm, with one at 86 inches. Where a piece is described simply by size, origin and palette, size usually comes first.
The archive is dominated by East Asian ceramics. Japanese pieces appear in nearly half the titles, and the Imari palette of underglaze blue, iron red and gilding is the commonest named decoration. Japanese Satsuma earthenware and Kutani porcelain follow, then Chinese famille rose, Canton and Rose Medallion, with a steady thread of blue and white from both countries.
A third of titles are for pairs, and "large pair" turns up repeatedly. Forms include baluster vases, two-handled vases, spill vases, lidded and covered examples, and several sold on hardwood or matching porcelain stands. Beyond the Asian core sit scattered singles: Italian majolica on a pedestal, Austrian art pottery, French art glass, Moroccan glazed terracotta with silver cabochon mounts, ironstone hall vases, an Oriental papier mâché vase and a turned wooden churn pressed into service.
Dating is broad. Thirty-six of the eighty-three listings say no more than "19th Century"; where a clean year is given it falls between 1860 and 1940, clustering in the 1880s and 1900s. In practice that puts the bulk of the category in later nineteenth-century Meiji-period or Qing-period work, made in quantity for export to Europe and America.
What Sets Them Apart
Pairs and height drive the range. Pairs cluster in the upper half of the sampled listings, and the words monumental, enormous and huge appear only up there. A single vase of modest height, described generically as a large Chinese vase, sits at the other end. Scale is what these were made for, so scale is what the market pays attention to.
Naming matters next. Titles that carry a kiln, an artist or a specific palette sit above those that give only origin and size, whether that is Kutani, a named Satsuma workshop, or a Canton pattern such as Rose Medallion or Rose Mandarin. A generic description tends to mean a generic price.
Completeness does the rest. A lidded or covered vase, a two-handled form, and above all an original matching stand in hardwood or porcelain, all push a listing upward. Pairs on matching stands recur at the top of the range, which is where the two factors meet.
Antique Floor Vases Retail Price Guide 2026
Typical UK retail prices for floor vases, calculated from the Sellingantiques database of over a million retail prices indexed since 2003. This retail price guide relies exclusively on Sellingantiques data; no external sources or auction records are used, so the figures do not describe the wider market.
Floor vases have been listed on Sellingantiques since 2013.
The Antique Floor Vases Glossary
- Floor standing
- A vase tall enough to stand on the floor rather than on furniture. The word "standing" appears in thirteen titles, usually alongside "large".
- Imari
- A Japanese porcelain palette of underglaze blue with iron red and gilding. It's the single commonest named decoration in this category.
- Satsuma
- Japanese cream-glazed earthenware, enamelled and gilt. Twelve titles name it, including lidded examples.
- Famille rose
- A Chinese enamel palette led by pink. Famille verte and famille noire also turn up in the archive.
- Rose Medallion
- A Cantonese famille rose pattern with reserved panels around a central medallion. Listings may call the same thing Canton or Cantonese. Rose Mandarin is the variant with figure panels.
- On stand
- Sold with a separate hardwood or porcelain base. Several titles state the stand is original and matching, and for pairs the phrase is "on stands".
Antique Floor Vases: Frequently Asked Questions
How tall is a typical floor vase?
Stated dimensions in the archive run from about 47cm at the small end up to 147cm, with one piece at 86 inches and another at 58 inches.
Two thirds of titles use the word "large". Monumental, enormous and huge appear too, and only on the biggest pieces.
Are floor vases usually sold in pairs?
Pairs account for a third of the titles, and "large pair" alone covers nearly a fifth of them.
Singles are common as well, particularly among the Japanese Imari vases. Pairs tend to sit in the upper half of the range, often on matching stands.
Where do most of these come from?
Japan and China dominate. Japanese pieces appear in nearly half of all titles, Chinese in around a fifth, covering Imari, Satsuma, Kutani, famille rose, Canton and blue and white.
The rest is a scatter of one-off origins: Italian majolica, Austrian art pottery, French art glass, Moroccan glazed terracotta and English art pottery.
What period are antique floor vases from?
Thirty-six of the eighty-three listings are dated no more precisely than "19th Century". Where a clean year is given, the range runs 1860 to 1940.
The clusters are the 1880s and the 1900s. That places most of the category in Meiji-period Japan or Qing-dynasty China.
One sampled ironstone hall vase is claimed as circa 1813-20, earlier than anything else recorded.
Do floor vases come with their original stands?
Some do. Several listings specify an original hardwood stand, and others matching original porcelain stands sold with a pair.
A stand described as original and matching sits higher in the range than the same vase without one.
How often do floor vases come up for sale?
Thirty-six dealers have listed them on Sellingantiques, and about twelve reach the market in a year.
So the category turns over slowly, spread thinly across a wide set of stockists rather than concentrated with a few specialists.